I wrote our principal an email, and he replied

Dear fellow students:

I am Lei, currently an LLM student from China.?

I wrote an email to our principal Professor Shitij Kapur on 14 July,?proposed that King's provides an extra option of a country-specific personal tutor, who is familiar with the particular language and culture, to all the international students (besides a tutor from his or her department or faculty), which I believe would offer more support to fellow students, foster the sense of King's community, contribute to students' high performance academically and achieving success in their future careers.

Because I have been away from academia for 11 years, and studying law at King's with a foreign language is tough, with all classes moved online due to the pandemic, taking away the opportunity of small talking with other students in the classroom, posed an extra challenge, I found myself struggled to keep up with my study and engage in as much as possible extra-curriculum activities.

King's is such an international prestige university, providing all kinds of fantastic opportunities and resources, if students felt language is a barrier, instead of a bridge to academic progress, relationship building, and cultural exchange, they may miss out on an important part of their uni lives. If they have a personal tutor with whom they feel freer to communicate more, they might be encouraged to be fully engaged in these experiences - to learn more, enjoy more, and contribute more.?

Of course, a country-specific personal tutor could not be the only satisfying answer to the problem but could be a meaningful first step.

Today, I got a response from the principal, asking to learn more about this issue.?

So, I am here to ask your opinions, because now, I am given the honour and privilege to speak for you guys, what do you think? How do you feel about your current tutor? Do you think you would benefit from a tutor with your language and cultural background? Please leave a comment!

Thank you!

Following is my original email to the principal:

Dear principal,

I hope you are well. I am Lei Wang, currently an LLM student from China, expecting to graduate this September.

I can't believe I am actually doing this, to be honest, I just watched your video from May again, hoping to build my email on the right cause and justify this reckless action. (That is indeed a great video, by the way, my personal favourite is the 'underdog' part since I always feel I am trying to overcome odds with pluck and courage.)

I am writing to propose that King's provides a country-specific personal?tutor?to every international student, which I believe would foster the sense of King's community, contribute to students' high performance academically and furthermore, achieving success in their future careers.

I do appreciate all the efforts King's staff have made to support the students in the pandemic, for example, myself is benefited from the pro counselling service when I came here to London during the lockdown. And I especially appreciate my?tutor?Mihael Jeklic - particularly after hearing other students' experiences of communicating with their?tutors - Mihael responds to my email in time and when I said I need to talk to him, he would immediately arrange a virtual meeting. Still, I somewhat feel I am alone here, without a community where I can support and inspire others and myself supported and inspired. King's is supposed to be my community.

I understand that the one-year taught master degree is short, and the pandemic poses extra challenges to all the students - lacking the opportunity to get to know their fellow students and communicate with knowledgeable professors in the classroom (for law students, we are supposed to hang out in the Summerset Palace ), and probably particularly to all the international students. However, from my observation and communication with other students, this challenge has disproportionately influenced Chinese students,?who constitute 8.7% of all King's students in 2017/2018?(maybe students from several other countries, but I didn't do related research).

Before and after I got the offer from King's, I took three IELTS since law school require a Band B performance which requires four 6.5 on each category and although I could do 8 on reading and listening, I could only get 6 on writing. This shortcoming is not unique for me. According to the statistic by the test centre on?Test taker performance 2019, Chinese students are generally underperformed, which explained why my classmates are overwhelmingly Chinese when I finally decided to take the pre-sessional course offered by King's, which cost me an extra fortune.

My speaking is not so bad, I got two 7s in my IELTS, but still, after the training of pre-sessional course, I felt difficulty in contributing to seminars. I sometimes did try to engage in the interesting and intense law school discussions and debates and felt relieved and rewarded late after, but this struggle has followed me even today, even people are telling me 'your English is perfect!' After the classes were over, I finally felt I have the time and effort to engage in other extracurricular activities, after all, university experience is not only about study. I volunteered to provide academic support to one of the Syrian refugees living in Lebanon, started to learn French and joined several workshops organised by King's Change and Citizens UK, where I feel empowered. I still do not feel confident in my English, but I am opening up and trying as hard as I can.

I saw similar struggles from other Chinese students, especially those who came here to pursue their postgraduate degree and haven't had any former experience of studying or living abroad. I talked with them, asking how they participated in classes, how their social lives with other international students going, and most importantly, how they find their personal?tutors, whether they are helpful, and how they feel about being a part of the King's community, the answers are disheartening. Because of the language barrier, they rarely proactively communicate with their?tutors or seek any help from them. That's when I realised this is not just me, and I'm not alone, in suffering from the same situation.

Language can be both the bridge and barrier to academic progress, relationship building, culture exchange, and career success. I wish the lack of confidence in English would not be a barrier for not just Chinese students, but all students at King's whose first language is not English. (International students have to pay over 10,000 pounds tuition fee more than home students on the LLM course, and nearly 10,000 pounds more than students who decided to apply for the online international LLM course in the first place.) A country-specific?tutor?might not be the best solution to this complex issue, but could be the important first step.

It might not be practical to literally provide a personal?tutor, who is familiar with a particular culture and language, but I think students should at least be given this option, which means if they feel a personal?tutor?with the same language and cultural background could provide them with more support and more sense of belonging, they shall be satisfied because this?tutoring system is supposed to offer personal guidance and assistance in their time at King's.

Current personal?tutors are all from the same faculty of the students, which might not be necessary, since academically, we all have the course leaders and dissertation or project?tutors. A person, who students feel no barrier to access, feel not embarrassed to contact and communicate, would help them most.

If there is any confusion please do forgive me and feel free to contact me. Wish you a wonderful day!

Kind regards,

Lei