Further follows information supplied by a former post-graduate student who shares his experience in doing research at one of the British universities.
I did my research on the REAP scientific exchange programme. I arrived in Britain for a 3-month visit which took place in February. It was my first ex-perience in the country. I couldn’t help thinking of what my stay in Britain would be like and whether my knowledge of English would be sufficient.
At Gatwick airport I was met by Prof. Flowers, the programme’s coordina-tor from Kingston University.
From Gatwick airport the car brought us to the very center of London where we had a very pleasant walk, then we drove to the hotel where I was to stay.
The next morning Mr. Flowers arranged for me a visit to the University. He in-troduced me to the staff of the Law School. I was shown round, visited the local li-brary.
Mr. Flowers himself is an excellent man, a capable and competent researcher. We spent a lot of time discussing different problems of mutual interest.
Law School was not very large, but resourceful. I found our research topics almost identical, but we used different approaches. It was as if we were doing the same by different means. Though I was practically given a free hand in the research, I tried to maintain permanent contacts with the Law School staff.
I must say I had very busy time there. I was totally absorbed in my work. Time and efforts were necessary for writing, reports and articles getting the material ready for publication.
During the final weeks of my stay in England I worked against time trying to solve the remaining problems.
On the last day of my stay there my British colleagues gave a little farewell party for me. My supervisor made a speech. He spoke in a very flattering terms about our collaboration.
I was glad to hear about the prospects of a series of exchange visits be-tween our two Universities.
At the end I expressed my deep gratitude to all the people who had worked with me for their valuable advice and assistance.
Notes:
REAP– Regional Academic Partnership Programme;
to have (to give) a free hand–иметь(предоставить)полную свободу действий;
to speak in flattering terms–лестно отзываться о ком-либо;
to work against time–стараться завершить работу к определенному сроку.
Check your knowledge of the useful vocabulary on the topic in question.
научная стажировка программа обмена достаточные знания останавливаться в отеле организовать посещение представить коллегам компетентный исследователь работать в сотрудничестве (с)
проблемы, представляющие взаимный интерес проводить совместные исследования применить иной подход предоставить полную свободу действий быть поглощенным работой тщательно анализировать готовить материал к изданию
просматривать периодические издания работать не покладая рук прощальная вечеринка лестно отозваться выразить благодарность
Any research visit is finalized with a report on the visit’s out-comes. Here is one of them taken from the Internet. You will see that Victor is not a native speaker of English and his lan-guage skills are not perfect. Try to notice mistakes in his report. Rewrite the sentences so as to avoid his mistakes. Write down words and expressions which can be used while writing analo-gous reports.
