Law student to represent Bangor University at Shanghai summer school
A PhD student at Bangor Law School has been selected to attend a prestigious summer school in Shanghai.
Stephen Clear, who has previously attained a first-class honours degree and recently completed an LLM Master of Laws by Research at Bangor Law School, beat other Bangor University candidates to secure a place on Shanghai University’s intensive cultural, business and language experience.
PhD student Stephen Clear will represent Bangor University on the prestigious Shanghai Summer School Programme
Over the course of two weeks, Stephen and the other successful research candidates from partnered universities, such as Canada and Australia, will be immersed in the culture of China’s – and the world’s – most populous city. He will experience everything from its food to the martial art of Tai Chi. Through industry field trips and business lectures by some of China’s top Professors he will be given an insight into the country’s bustling economy, and this will be done alongside a crash course and exam in basic Mandarin. Upon satisfactory completion of the summer school, he will be awarded a Chinese Language Learning Certificate from SILC Shanghai University.
23-year old Stephen, whose PhD focuses on Public Procurement and Judicial Review, sees it being of benefit to his academic pursuits. “China is an important emerging economy, and through this summer school I hope to broaden my areas of academic interest. I wanted more than just a textbook understanding of drawing upon international comparatives. I saw this programme as an ideal opportunity to achieve this. I will be given the opportunity to visit the Baosteel Group Corporation, Shanghai Stock Exchange, Oriental TV Tower and the 88-storey Jinmao Building. These practical experiences should help me develop my own international perspectives within my own research”.
As a warden overseeing 96 of Bangor’s international students across two halls of residence, Stephen also hopes to gain more than just intellectual enlightenment from the summer school: “the majority of the students I am responsible for are Chinese, so I’m looking forward to gaining a better understanding of their culture from this experience. Through this programme I will be able to have a few weeks experience of the challenges of studying abroad in a foreign country. By putting myself in the position of an ‘international student’ I hope to be able to improve in my role as warden”.
Professor Dermot Cahill, Head of Bangor Law School, welcomed the news of Stephen’s success: “participating in this programme will open up a range of new opportunities for Stephen, one of our most promising students. Bangor Law School has extensive links with China and it is nice to see students moving in both directions, East to West and now West to East. Stephen has had the benefit of Bangor Law School’s internationalised curriculum, so I am sure he will benefit greatly from the Shanghai Summer School Programme”.
Publication date: 28 March 2012