A common misconception is that university guidance counselling is only the “final step” to get students into a suitable university after they graduate from high school. In fact, throughout high school and even earlier, university counsellors play a critical role. Today, let’s look at the busy work of our CUG (Career and University Guidance) department since the beginning of the academic year.
Keeping up with industry trends and ensuring that counsellors move with the times
In September, our CUG counsellors attended the 11th East Meets West Conference, hosted by Tsinglan School. The three-day event, with over one hundred and sixty school CUG counsellors and more than sixty admissions officers from overseas universities, showcased the latest information on overseas study, enriching our insights into university application planning.
On 25 October, our CUG counsellor, Mr. Penn Hu, was invited to speak at the China Competence Education Expo. As SUIS Qingpu’s very first counsellor, he shared his experience on how to establish a career and guidance system ‘from scratch’. As well as introducing and analyzing the university counselling system, policies, procedures, and relevant software, Mr. Penn also offered advice on how to use ICT tools effectively for communication and data analysis.
Providing overall planning and one-on-one guidance to students from all grades
During tea meetings with parents in September, the CUG team shared timelines as well as requirements for each grade. Grade 9 and 10 students should cultivate good learning behaviours, strive for academic excellence, determine the careers they are interested in, explore the majors/courses at university they would like to take, and participate actively in extracurricular activities. In Grade 11, the most critical year for university application preparation, students are expected to select universities and majors and draft their university application essays, while maintaining and improving on high scores. In the first semester of Grade 12, students need to complete their university applications and, soon thereafter, will begin to prepare for the transition from high school to university life.
Alongside these meetings, the CUG team held one-to-one meetings with Grade 12 students and parents throughout September, followed by meetings with Grade 11 students and parents in October. During the meetings, students and parents were provided with more detailed and personalized guidance for their current learning and readiness for university.
Providing career guidance and assessment for students from lower grades
During October and November, our CUG team brought together all Grade 9 and 10 students to complete the Kuder Career Assessment. This assessment aims to explore students’ academic and professional interests while making recommendations for high school options and choices of university courses/majors. After the assessment report was generated, Mr. Penn provided all students with thorough instructions on how to interpret the report so as to make the most use of it for career planning.
Connecting with prestigious universities for first-hand admissions policies
In November, our CUG team attended the University of Glasgow Shanghai Counsellor Reception Event and the China Annual Conference for Counsellors, hosted by Study UK. These two conferences provided our CUG counsellors with the latest admission policies together with useful information about the top-ranking majors in UK universities. Meanwhile, to help our students be more prepared for university applications, our counsellors also sought detailed entry-requirements information from admissions officers.
Sharing experiences and resources with counterparts from other SUIS campuses
In September and November, our CUG team participated in two cross-campus CUG Conferences. In the September meeting, counsellors from each campus had a professional exchange with a Japanese university delegation invited by Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE), and also spent some time analyzing application results from the previous academic year. The November meeting focused on this year’s early applications, and counsellors from each campus visited Leyard Group, a leading audio-visual technology enterprise to reflect on how to use counselling to facilitate students’ career development.
Inviting alumni and university representatives to the campus for information sessi
The CUG team will continue to support our students’ planning and preparations for university and their future careers. Please keep an eye out for our upcoming events!