International study at Perth College UHI - Zhihao Wu

More and more people from across the world are choosing to study at Perth College UHI, because of our international study opportunities. You can choose from an impressive range of top-quality courses from foundation courses, to Honours and Masters degrees. Or you can opt to improve your English language skills, at our British Council-accredited Language School - which has been successfully delivering courses since 1971. On the blog this week, we get to know one of our students from China - and hear how he is getting on, with his fantastic homestay family 😊

My name is Zhihao Wu from Hunan province, China. I am majoring Mechanical Design and Automation, at Perth College UHI, in year 4. I will finish my last semester in the UK, and plan to continue postgraduate study.

Our project teacher is Allan - who is really nice, and a responsible person. He once came to my school in China to guide our homework (our school in China has a cooperative relationship with Perth College UHI). Every time I have questions relating to my study, I would take the initiative to send emails to him and he would answer enthusiastically, even on his days off. We do not have many classes in the senior year, and more time is spent working on course work and graduation projects.

I stay with a local couple who are very nice. They are very happy to provide us with a comfortable living environment, without too many restrictions as they want us to feel at home. I have become very familiar with their young grandchildren, because they often come here, and we have become very good friends. I will play football and games with them, and sometimes they will give me the paintings they drew here.

Although I spend most of my time at home due to the pandemic, my daily life is not boring. Apart from class and study - music, working out, reading books on my Kindle and cooking food - are the hobbies currently enriching my daily life.

I like to eat the food that I make by myself, very much. Every week, I will purchase food and cook at home. My homestay mother is always curious about what delicious food I am making - I usually cook Chinese food.

On the day of Chinese New Year, our family in China has the habit of eating dumplings. This is a picture of making dumplings the day before the Spring Festival.

I'm happy to share them with my homestay, and it's interesting that we all eat boiled or steamed dumplings - but probably because Chinese restaurants around here sell fried dumplings, they're not very used to dumplings without crispy skin. It's easy to solve, just put the cooked dumplings in the pan and fry them until the surface is golden. They liked my dumplings very much, and they were deeply impressed.

On Christmas Day, they also invited us to enjoy Christmas dinner with their children and grandchildren too. Sometimes a taste of local food is a better way to understand the local culture and living habits.

Inspired by Zhihao’s experience studying in Perth? We are dedicated to providing a first-class experience for our international students, and supporting them every step of the way. This commitment has been recognised by the Scottish Council for Development and Industry, which awarded us with an International Achievement commendation, as well as being highly commended in the annual Scotland's Colleges Awards in the 'International Activity' category. We are also a member of English UK.

If you would like to find out more information about studying at Perth College UHI, take a look at our International department.