庚子年末，尽管街巷里都飘散着充满年味的空气，小鹦鹉们却丝毫不愿蹉跎这宝贵的寒假时光。为了跟上科学快速发展的步伐，我们班中的几位同学参与了牛津前沿展望计划。牛津大学是世界上最著名的高等学府之一，其教学与学术实力广为世人所认可。尽管未能到校园亲身体验浓厚的学术氛围，高水平、高深度、高难度的牛津线上课程体验依旧给同学们留下了深刻的印象。

 

While some chose to enjoy their winter vacation in leisure, a few of us opted to enrich ourselves with new profound knowledge by joining an online Medical Programme offered by Oxford Prospects and Global Development Institute. Oxford University has been one of the most prestigious institutions globally, and being able to take part in its education was truly a lifetime’s honour.

 

三星期的课程，由一次生动的线上导览开始。尽管我们相隔千里、横跨数个时区，但是仍能从电脑屏幕中感受到来自牛津的老师们满溢的热情。而且他们也马上给了第一个小目标，就是在课程中时刻保持好奇和动力。课程设置富有趣味，根据不同性质可划分为lectures, seminars, workshops, social tea sessions.

 

The 3-week courses started-off with a brief introduction held by the staffs of the OPGDI Programme Team, in which we got to know every person joining this program and had a virtual tour around Oxford via a PowerPoint presentation. Even via our monitor screens, the grace of Oxford had us all stunned in awe. Then, the regulations for the courses were also set, which were simple - to be active and curious. The course consisted of 4 main categories: lectures, seminars, workshops and social tea sessions.

 

 

Lecture 就是在一小时内，把当今最前沿的医学领域话题介绍给我们。原先以为全英文的讲座非常晦涩难懂，但教授讲者们将自己的研究内容用生动形象的图表等方式，让我们能够听懂这些“高大上”的东西。除了教授讲者们，教学助理也是课程中不可或缺的成员，他们会把课堂的笔记都整理好，因此上课时我们要做的就只是思考和聆听，课后还可以回看整理好的资料进行复盘。当体验过这样的课程之后，其实会感叹要是平日的课堂也能享有如此的资源就好啦！

 

Lectures were classes delivered by presenters accompanied by PowerPoint presentation. Each of them lasted around 1 hour with a Q&A session at the end for us to ask any questions we wished to know. They were all packed full of contents that were some of the hot topics in today’s medical science field.

 

Throughout these lectures, we got to know bits and pieces on medicine up-to-date and hear from the wisdom of these giants in their fields. Not a single moment was dull, all of them shed light on various issues that provoked us to think more about the future we were heading towards. Besides the lecturers, academic assistants were also presented to ensure the smooth rundown of each lecture and helped to make detailed notes that were uploaded to the cloud, which came in handy to prepare for the quizzes during the weekends.

Here is a list of all the lectures we had:

1.  NHS in the UK

2.  Social Determinants of Health

3.  Omics Tools and Techniques Used in Translational Research

4.  Stems Cells and Promise if Regenerative Medicine

5.  Development of Oncological Imaging

6.  Macrophage and Anti-microbial Activity

7.  Putting Cell under the Microscope

8.  Computer-Aided Drug Design

9.  Ethics of Biomedical Research

10.  Drug Development and Clinical Trials

11.  Evolutionary Perspectives on Cancer and Ageing

12.  Neurodegenerative Diseases: The Coming Epidemic

13.  Ageing of our Population

14.  Nanotechnology in Immunotherapy and Vaccines

15.  Strengths and Weaknesses of Pharmacoepidemiology

 

除了有关学术的部分，还有special guset lecture，项目邀请到了陪伴我们成长的一部电视剧--《唐顿庄园》Liz Trubridge女仕和当中饰演Atticus Aldridge的演员Matt Barber。借此，我们有机会得知唐顿庄园背后的故事，由场地到服饰再到音乐。唐顿庄园中的细节，让人一再回味，一次又一次地感受到当时它风靡全球的盛况。

 

Apart from these academic lectures, there was a special guest lecture on the renowned English TV drama Downton Abbey. Liz Trubridge, the executive producer of the show, and Matt Barber, who played the role of Atticus Aldridge, were invited to share with us the stories behind the screen. We even got to interview them personally and found out more about how Downton Abbey came to be, from the venue of filming, music, costumes, and production teams that gave birth to one of the greatest TV series in the UK. The deep culture and art of the UK were delivered to all viewers of the show, bringing us closer as we took this peek into its history and beauty.

 

 

当然我们不只有安静聆听的时候，Seminar 给予了我们更多的讨论机会。在Seminar 上，学生各自分组，学生成了主导者，由学生分享交流，老师从旁引导，pre之后同学之间进行提问和讨论。讨论当中的思维碰撞，以及学习接受不同的意见，是课程中最可贵的收获之一。

 

For seminars, we were asked to do presentations on topics discussed during the lectures in groups of 2 to 3 people, followed by an open discussion toward the end where professors asked us more questions based on what we had prepared. It was highly challenging and required immense effort as well as good communication skills. Seminar partners needed to work together and helped each other out. We had all engaged in eye-opening discussions, with professors providing guidance and lots of encouragement for us to think more and speak up more. Not only did we get to practise our presentation skills, but we had also learnt to be more open to different opinions and respect each other in these seminars.

 

 学生是组成校园最重要的一环，我们也很荣幸能在Workshop 及Social Tea Sessions 中听到在校学生以及毕业生的牛津生活点滴分享。他们分享了许多从学生角度出发的观点，同时介绍了牛津访问学生等不同途径成为牛津一分子的机会。

 

Topics on workshops were related to what academic life in the UK would be, providing us with advice on how to better our profiles for life beyond undergraduate studies.

Here is a list of all the workshop had:

1.  Academic Writing and Presentation Skill

2.  Research and Academic Profile Development

3.  Mental Health and Peer Support

4.  Personal Statement and Graduate Application

5.  Post-graduate Career Paths

 

In social tea sessions, Oxford students and visiting students were invited to share with us what life’s like studying in Oxford. Senior Oxford students were there to give us suggestions on how to make the best out of university life. A Visiting Student Programme, which allowed us to become a life-long Oxford member, was introduced along with tips on how to maximize our possibility for application.

 

 

鹦言鹦语

 

一位学长讲的一句话印象非常深刻“绝对不要做让您感到如此自在的事情。一旦您做某件事变得很自在，就该转去嘗试新的事物了。”人总是有惰性的，在自己熟悉的领域做着自己觉得舒服的举动无疑是最安全的、永远不会出错、不会出丑、也不必去面临任何窘迫情形。然而这或许也扼杀了许多本可以尝试新事物的机会，探索新一番天地的可能性。人不能活得太安逸。这一句话警醒了我对安逸现状的满足和懒动。--杨熠

    One senior Oxford student gave us a piece of remarkable advice, “to never do the things that make you feel so comfortable doing. Once you get too comfortable doing something, it’s about time to move on and get in touch with new things.” Men are all with laziness, staying in our comfort zone is undoubtedly the safest – never worrying about making mistakes, facing embarrassment by making a fool out of yourself. But being safe can kill our possibilities into new chances. With that said, one should not live in safety. This is a warning to me being complacent with the status quos and laziness.

 

– Yang Yi

 

感谢这次的游学计划的讲师，我在这次的学习过程中获得了许多的灵感，不仅有对未来职业规划方面的，更有研究方向层面的。对于这些灵感，我不一定有机会一一实现，但我获得启发的过程和思路将为我带来更多的灵感。对于一项研究而言，其独到主题是与其严谨的工作重要性相当的部分。我由衷感谢这次游学计划对我的提升。--娄顺佳

    Thanks to all lecturers of this programme. This learning process has inspired me in both my future career planning and research direction. Though I might not have the chance to do all that I was inspired to, with these inspirations I can move onto a better pathway. As with research, finding a unique topic and strict work are fundamental. I was grateful for how this programme has improved me.

 

– Lou Shun Jia

 

牛津展望计划项目尽管移师线上，但她带给你的学术体验之精彩丝毫未打折扣。在牛津式的教学和其发人深省的讨论中，相信没有一个人会不喜欢这样的课堂。

 

As expected, it was no ordinary online course, and despite not being on-site, we still got to experience the Oxford style of teaching and have in-depth discussions with professors and even colleagues. Education has really evolved.