Chinese student says DMU diversity helped her in crucial placement

A Chinese student says the diversity at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) helped her when it came to making an impression in a vital work placement.

Yu Long said it was the number of different nationalities and cultural backgrounds she had met while on campus which gave her the edge helping a Leicester company make international business connections.

Yu - currently completing an MSc in Intercultural Business Communications - said her own background in China, coupled with the diversity she had experienced in her years in undergraduate and postgraduate study at DMU, gave her a unique perspective when on a six-week placement at Micro-Fresh, a company which creates odour-beating technology.

She said: "I chose to undertake my placement with a local company because I wanted to see if I could help them make more international contacts.

"Micro-Fresh is successful in the UK, getting its products into John Lewis and Sainsbury's for example.

"But I prepared a 40-page report which showed how they could grow into Chinese markets, looking at how Chinese people might perceive the products and the difference between the economies, the fact that Chinese businesses tend to think more long-term than UK ones."

Yu - who before this completed a BA in Business and Management at DMU - said her ideal job would be to work with a large organisation, such as a bank, helping it negotiate with foreign markets, using her international knowledge to understand what different countries wanted and how to pitch to them.

She said: "One of the key things I love about DMU is the diversity of all the students. I have made so many good friends from England, Italy, India and more. I needed to find a selection of different nationalities for my dissertation and in 152 students I spoke to here, I found 34 nationalities, which was amazing."

Yu said that Leicester's central location was another reason she chose DMU initially, when making the move from China.

She said: "I have been able to get around the UK and see so many places, like Oxford, Cambridge, the Lake District, London. But I love Leicester for itself, I really want to stay on and work here."