From Hao Chen

Our own correspondent on her first year here in the UK from China.

Recently, the SU provided training for the new committees in the various societies. Fortunately I was also in the training and it felt quite different from what the societies do in China. I remembered that in my high school, there were lots of societies that we could  join but we did not have to pay the membership fee, like the Model UN,the Drama society and the Youth Symphony Orchestra, we were free to choose any society and to be involved as long as we wanted.

In the universities of China, societies are developing fast as well, many of my friends are doing SIFE and AIESEC and they are so passionate doing so, but we do not receive trainings by SU because SU and societies belong to two different systems. The third system is the Volunteer Centre, and there are tutors and staff directing students to organise events, so we get total assistance from the university administration. But students must find the sponsors themselves so if any society has a super treasurer then events can be very fabulous!

Another difference is most societies require interviews and related experience so we get some competition before we get into them, in addition the elections sometimes need to be supervised by tutors or staff because the committee need to work with them closely in the future.