With the undergoing of the Belt and Road Initiative, USTC has welcomed more and more foreign students to join us as USTCers. How are they getting along with their studies and lives here? Are these programmes really helping them pursuing their dreams? Abhishek Narayan Mondal from Calcutta, India under the CAS-TWAS President’s Fellowship Programme shared us with his stories in USTC.
Living in Hefei as a foreign student
When asked about the likes and dislikes in living here, the answers are both foods, as Abhishek is quite busy in his third year for a Doctor’s degree and hardly eats outside. According to him, it’s great to find nice and cheap Indian-like noodles in the canteen, however he also misses traditional Indian dishes whose ingredients are hard to find in China. The rainy weather isb also something "unusual" for someone from the traditional dry and hot Calcutta. Additionally, for him the wet cold is difficult to handle even with the heating system on! While problems from weather and foods can be shared with students from other parts of China, language is truly a challenge for most of the foreign students. Thanks for Chinese panorama and basic Chinese courses, which are compulsory in the first 6 months for the exchange students, Abhishek got to know more about the Chinese culture, tradition, and language.
"Initially it’s very hard, but teachers are very kind, helpful and there’re all kinds of activities and presentations to practice daily situations and I somehow managed to get a good mark—almost above 85," Abhishek recalled and showed some basic Chinese in a quite decent accent like pingguo??shouji, etc, "for me the courses are very helpful and really important, it should be there, because you not only study here, but also have a personal life too."
Now Abhishek has also managed to make many friends (including Chinese friends) and he has a good social life. With help and support of them and USTC, living here proves satisfactory.
Why choose USTC?
The two major motivations that compelled Abhishek to join USTC are his current supervisor Prof. Tongwen Xu and USTC’s academic standard and excellent performances in science. Abhishek has a long desire to work with his present supervisor, Prof. Xu, who’s really a huge name in the field of ion exchange membrane all across the world.
"I’ve read his papers a lot through the internet during my master studies," appreciation for Prof. Xu is obvious as Abhishek told about Xu’s unparalleled first-class achievements in this field, "he’s associated with polymer company (Chemjoy) here and he’s inside the 100-men project, working with him could be a privilege in CV to prolong your future researches."
Besides, the reputation USTC enjoys in science and technology also attracted Abhishek very much. "The world ranking of 153 by the Times Higher Education is not at all a joke", he includes, "its academic excellence, environment, all related facilities, foreign students’ dealings, especially cutting-edge research, it’s like, wow, really modern intense researches are going on here." And that’s probably what fascinates foreign students and researchers most all over the world.
Take off from USTC into future
Abhishek joined USTC in the fall of 2014 with a desire to do novel yet realistic researches, something really helps push our society forward in the field of ion exchange membrane. With his passion and diligence, Abhishek is moving towards his goal step by step. "I’m not an employee, going out at 8 o’clock in the morning and coming at 6, it’s more like a passion." As his wife joked, "he loves to be in lab rather than home." And this year, Abhishek is among the three students nominated by USTC in the Best International Students’ Award, which will be decided further by the Chinese Academy of Science, and will graduate as a Doctor probably in 2017-2018 academic year (in expectation).
"I’m extremely happy and grateful to Chinese Academy of Science and USTC for providing me the chance to pursue my studies here," Abhishek stressed, "definitely I’d like to prolong hard-core scientific researches in China if I’d be given the proper chance."
It is a great platform in cutting edge research with advanced equipment??excellent research groups that these programs have given to all the foreign students, in turn, exchange of ideas from different cultures, traditions and education backgrounds can work together to create something better in China’s credit. USTC is and will always welcome foreign students to join us and take off from here into their future.
GUO Jianjian, USTC News Center
Edited LYU Jinghao
