Yu-Tang
Hsu

Hello Yu-Tang! Please can you tell us about yourself? Where are you from and what made you decide to study at NTU?

I'm from Taiwan. I grew up in a middle class family and lived in an industrial/modern city. I actually completed my high school degree in New Zealand and my undergraduate degree in Psychology and Sociology from Ontario, Canada. I also studied and worked in China for a short time. Just before I came to the UK, I learnt French for a year in Paris.

Before I came to the UK, I had done my research about the universities in UK and I found that NTU has good reputation of quality teaching. NTU offers new SQE/LLM Law programmes, which allows me to accomplish the LLM degree at the same time. Studying in NTU has many cost-effective facts, in terms of tuition, location, the cost of the local rent and the prospects of the degree. NTU has great employability care for its students – the Graduate Outcomes Survey shows NTU’s students have great chances of being employed upon graduation.

Please can you tell us about your course and the support you’ve received from your lecturers?

My course is a new UK law program that allows individuals without an LLB or LLM degree to become a solicitor. The courses covers six areas of UK law such as land, criminal, contract, tort, trust and legal practice. Each course is taught by an instructor who has experiences as a solicitor. The courses are taught by way of assigning students into workshops and students have to pre-read the legal material, which is then discussed in group work. The course also encourages students to undertake volunteering opportunities within NTU. For example, the Magistrate Challenge - it is similar to the simulation of a real court situation where there are two judges seated for the hearing and student play the solicitor roles. In the end, the judges will give advice to students to improve in the future. Also, there is mooting, which involves presenting one’s case to the judges.

I think NTU aims for total care of it’s students’ learning. My instructor and I will regularly have meeting individually on Teams. She will notice areas where students can progress and those that need to improve by the next meeting. My instructor will also book appointments to discuss ways to improve our academic work. Tutors are easily approached and explain things well when you e-mail them or tell them your concerns.

Have you enjoyed living in Nottingham? What is your favourite thing about it?

I love to be in Nottingham. It’s like a small community where the people here are friendly and willing to help each other. The NTU City Campus is right in the centre of Nottingham downtown, it has so many shops and restaurants nearby – it is just so convenient. The weather in Nottingham is always nice, especially now in the summertime, where people are seated on patios or local bars to relax and enjoy the sun. My favourite thing to do is have a chat with friends in local bars or coffee shops and to taste the variety of food in the restaurants in Nottingham. Also, joining Nottingham community groups to help, volunteer and explore the Nottingham culture. I also like to play golf in Nottingham’s clubs to see the Nottingham landscape.

What has been your highlight of your time at NTU?

It may be the time when I’ve had chances to perform professional legal work. For example, outreach legal programmes, the magistrate challenge, moots or court observations. Those legal opportunities not only underline what I have learned but also give me practical experience in real court room. The other thing is that by going through these processes I actually met lots of new friends – I would consider this to be part of my highlights of my time at NTU.

What do you plan to do after you graduate from NTU?

After graduating from NTU, I will be pursuing the path to become a barrister. I think it will be helpful to have a year of work experience in legal institutions first, to be more familiar with legal practices. I'm also thinking of expanding my qualifications across European and Asian countries, to make it more diversified.

Finally, if there was one message that you could give to a new NTU student, what would it be?

Just relax! NTU will take good care of you.