Yinya Liu
When I arrived in Ireland, it was my first time to travel abroad from China and study in a foreign country. The beautiful environment and buildings attracted me and the friendly welcome from both lecturers and students impressed me. I spent four years in Maynooth to pursue my doctoral degree, however these four years have made Maynooth as my second hometown. I have worked here, lived here and made friends here. After I graduated, I still worked for Maynooth University until now.
2010‐2011, Matthew O’Donnell Scholarship, Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth
2009, Tutor’s Prize, Department of Philosophy, Maynooth University
2006‐2010: John & Pat Hume Scholarship, Maynooth University
MU provides comprehensive and flexible teaching and learning approaches to students. Students can learn knowledge and information efficiently from the lectures and can receive personalised advice from small group tutorials. MU also provides various assistances for international students as well as students with special needs.
When I pursued my doctoral degree, the Department of Philosophy kindly offered me opportunities to teach both tutorials and elective modules for both undergraduate students and postgraduate students. These are precious chances for me to improve my language skills, to know how to communicate with students, to be familiar with the higher education system in Ireland. All of this has paved the way for me to be a lecturer after I graduated.
If a student would like to do a doctoral degree in Philosophy at Maynooth University, I would advise him or her to find out the supervisor whose expertise could assist this student in his or her research interest. The university library could provide most of the research materials that he or she would need. And don’t miss the opportunities to attend various training sessions on both research skills and practical skills provided by different departments. You will equip yourselves as both a qualified researcher but also a good lecturer with all of this training.
After I graduated, I worked as a programme coordinator for Maynooth University for two years. In these two years, I have assisted on establishing collaborations between Irish universities and Chinese universities. Afterwards, I have joined the School of Modern Language, Literature and Cultures as a lecturer since 2015 until now.
I teach both language modules and content modules for both undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Chinese Studies. As a subject leader, I have worked with my colleagues in the School to provide teachings and advice for students. We have also worked on developing new modules and collaboration opportunities for both the School and the University.
The most interesting and challenging part of my job is to teach students but at the same time, to learn from the students. Research and teaching, for me is not separate - it is interlinked to each other. Research itself is not static but developing. Therefore, I would integrate some of the research outcome into teaching and see the feedback and learning outcome from students. As students’ perceptions would change year by year, I always receive different feedback from students in different years. This also would benefit my research.
I really love my current job because to be a teacher is my ideal job since I decided to pursue a PhD degree. And it is very pleasant to work with my colleagues in the school. I also receive positive feedback every year from our students. Even though, Chinese Studies is a small section in the School, but there are still many spaces that we can develop for this subject.