Chinese student innovation spotlighted

Professor Dallman champions a vibrant, research-led, creative student experience

Writing in China Daily, Professor Maggie Dallman shows how Imperial's Chinese students are applying their creativity to society's benefit.

In the comment piece for the newspaper, Professor Dallman, Associate Provost (Academic Partnerships), challenges the stereotype that Chinese students are discouraged from independent thought in favour of rote learning: 

“Almost every day I meet brilliant Chinese students who are willing to take risks, think creatively and apply their outstanding intellectual skills to solve societal problems.”

The article is published as President Xi Jinping lands in the UK for his State Visit, which will include a visit to Imperial.

Professor Dallman uses the article to reflect on Imperial’s own thriving Chinese student population: “These 2,000 students are no shrinking violets. They are leaders, pursuing original research projects and developing entrepreneurial ideas to help tackle issues such as climate change and diseases and create new opportunities for economic growth in the United Kingdom, China and worldwide.”

Future leaders

Professor Dallman points to the example of postgraduate Yan Xu (Business School), whose Imperial team won £10,000 seed-funding in the McKinsey Venture Academy Award for their business idea to streamline coffee production.

She also discusses PhD student Xi Liu (Civil and Environmental Engineering) whose contributions to a green roof garden project to improve urban environments have been presented to members of Parliament.

Professor Dallman recently returned from a visit to China led by President Gast, where she met Beijing high school students and spoke to them about Imperial and her own career and research: 

“They immediately grasped that research is an inherently collaborative endeavour and were excited by the prospect of immersing themselves in an educational environment that takes advantage of this. I have no doubt that among these Chinese high school students were some of the great science, business and government leaders of the future.”

The full article can be read at China Daily.