Civilizations are built by the intellectuals. One of the most important ways to ensure success for future generations is education. I think one of the best things about living in Ningbo and China as a whole is the emphasis on education. I have the pleasure and honor to see my students doing their best each day and striving to learn more so they can do better in the future. However, the weight of future hopes and dreams not only falls  on their shoulders; teachers and lecturers are an integral part of this value chain as well.

The University of Nottingham in Ningbo (UNNC) is the first Sino-foreign joint venture university in China. Since its inception in 2004, it has been leading the pack in terms of innovation. Even the air on campus feels cooler and scholarly almost as if just by walking on the campus you absorb knowledge osmotically. The university sports a diverse group of students and staff from various countries. I had a sit-down with three members of their academic staff: Justin Berg, Professor Martin Lockett and Professor Jim Greer. All of them are innovators in their respective fields.

Justin Berg is a soft-spoken man but that does not stop his passion for music from shining through. A firm believer in the superiority of live music over recordings, he not only has studied music but also performs regularly. He views music as an important vehicle for a city’s development, even going so far as to bring and reassemble Ningbo’s first pipe organ, a project that took nearly ten years to complete. They then commissioned a piece of music, Peaceful Waves by Ad Wammes, specifically for the organ. This was a happy meeting of his love for live music, his passion for the creation of new music and the successful completion of the project.  

Having attained multiple master’s degrees focused on music he is currently a Ph.D. candidate. When he came back to Ningbo, he did another degree in Applied Linguistics. As a lifelong student himself, his happiest moments are usually his students’ graduation. The saddest part about living in Ningbo is watching artistic people move to bigger cities, looking for greener pastures. He believes if you want greener pastures then you should create them where you live.  

A born and bred Texan, Professor Jim Greer studied at the University of Austin, Texas. He worked for a few years in the United States before moving to Ireland and finding love. He spent the next few years living in Europe, both in Germany and in Ireland. He ended up in Ningbo when a friend told him a Nottingham University job post “looked like him”. This piqued the professor’s interest. Having lived in Ireland for a while, moving to China felt like a safe but challenging adventure.

You cannot live in a city and not have your favorite spots. He is no exception, he highlighted Tianyi Library for its beauty and history. Next was the center of the city where the three rivers meet, he recommended a boat ride to the meeting point. One of his favorite things to do in Ningbo is meeting new people. In the summer, he likes to go out to Ningbo’s countryside as he feels it gives a genuinely nice glimpse of Ningbo’s culture.

Coming to China was a no-brainer for Professor Martin Lockett. He has always had a deep-rooted interest in China and had even studied Chinese affairs. UNNC was the perfect choice because it allowed him to strike a balance between doing research and teaching. He jokes that UNNC was the perfect marriage of everything he had done in his life up until that point.

Ningbo is the ideal city for Professor Lockett: he is especially fond of the city’s beautiful landmarks, and has visited all of them. The fact one can get to the countryside with a short 30-to-40-minute drive is another major draw for the city. To him, Ningbo is a city that is both beautiful and set in history, but it is also full of opportunities and benefits for foreign talents and businesses. In our conversation, we talked about the importance of understanding the market you are in. One of his favorite examples of a company understanding its market is FOTILE, which manufactures home appliances. The company innovated kitchen design by creating a dishwasher, sink combination for those apartments with small kitchens. This is the kind of innovation he would like to see more in Ningbo.

Teaching and learning are lifelong endeavors. As someone once said: Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future. These three UNNC staff members embrace this philosophy and form part of the beautiful mosaic that is Ningbo’s people.