 Good day to all our subscribers. This is Bridges Management University. My name is Shakrizoda and I'm the Foundation Year student. And today we have another special guest, a lecturer at our university, Mr. Simon Pauli. Mr. Simon Pauli comes from London, UK, and teaches social studies in general education. Hi Mr. Simon, how are you doing today? Hi, doing very well. Thank you. We're starting a new semester next week and I'm very excited to see the students again and get started with classes. To start today's interview session can you please tell us about yourself? So I grew up in the UK and I studied in London for some years. After that I taught at universities in London and Oxford. I then moved to Astana in Kazakhstan. I worked there for a couple of years and I came to Tashkent about two and a half years ago to join British Management University. We know that your background is history. Your research focuses on history of medicine and psychology in Russian Empire and Soviet Union. Wow, this is impressive. And can you tell us why did you choose this major and what was the cause of this interest? So the process by which academics choose these kinds of research topics is often a long one. But there were two things that really brought me to focus on this topic. The first was that I had the chance to study Russian and Soviet history and I started to get interested in that. And when I started studying that I really started to think about and get more interested in the experience of ordinary people. What was it like for ordinary people to live through the history of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union? And one of the reasons why I focus on medicine is that it gives me a chance to look at ordinary people's lives, ordinary people's experience of history and it also brings in some topics about society and culture as well as politics. Currently you are teaching social studies which is a bit different from your major. Why is that and why did you move to this field? Yes, it is a distinct field from history but it's also a related one. As I said in my historical research and also in my history teaching in the past I've focused on a range of issues like society, economy, culture as well as politics. And so what I'm teaching now I'm teaching a module on globalization which also brings in a lot of the same kinds of themes about the connections between economy, culture and society. And again I still retain this main interest in how does it affect ordinary people. So I try to encourage my students in my globalization class not just to think about high politics and diplomacy but what effect does globalization have on normal people, how we work and how we live. So that's how I made that journey. Could you share your teaching experience at Oxford University and did you have any students from Uzbekistan there? Well, Oxford University was a very interesting place to teach. I did not have any students from Uzbekistan at that time but I did teach students both from the UK and from all around the world. It was quite a special environment and what was special about it was obviously that students had a high level of motivation but also that we had a lot of space and time to focus on developing students' thinking and their skills. So we spent a lot of time focusing on research skills and writing. Students had to work hard, they wrote at least one essay a week sometimes two essays in a week but through this hard work they developed their skills and I think they learned something really valuable which is how to think critically and how to write in a persuasive way, how to communicate persuasively. How do you find Uzbekistan overall because we have huge Soviet cultural impact from past? So before I came to Uzbekistan I spent a couple of years living and working in Kazakhstan and at that time my interest in Central Asia specifically really started to develop. Uzbekistan is a country with a really fascinating rich culture and history. It has an incredible historical tradition but it's also a very interesting place for me because it's a place that's changing very rapidly and I feel a real sense of excitement especially working with students and meeting young people about how fast the country is changing and optimism for the future. So all in all it's a really fascinating place to be. Can you tell us about a little bit of study techniques that you use in your classes? So in my classes one of the main things that I focus on is getting students to develop their techniques for independent learning and what that really means is learning how to do research learning how to do critical thinking and learning how to write and communicate in an original and persuasive way. Now those are not easy things to do particularly for students who are studying in a second language but when students work hard at it they can certainly make progress and I think they're really valuable skills to have for any career path that students want to follow in the future those are really excellent valuable skills and when students learn those techniques and realize that they can start to do these things I think it gives them a very good feeling that they're really developing so independent learning is a big focus for me. Why do you think the future applicants should choose British Management University? I think what's quite unique about British Management University is that we're providing international education in Uzbekistan it's an international standard university we're very fortunate to have partnerships with the University of Reading and Queen Margaret University in the UK they've helped us to develop our programs and what we're able to offer really is international university education in Tashkent. To support that we have a really excellent team of teachers both international and highly qualified teachers from Uzbekistan as well and we have a really exciting student body who are enthusiastic and energetic we also have a very nice new campus with lots of great facilities so all in all I think it's a really great place to study and I hope to see people coming here next academic year. What will students learn from your classes? So at the moment I'm teaching two modules one is academic skills and in that module we really introduce students to university study teach them some techniques for research and writing and develop the skills that they're going to need to succeed in the second part of their time at BMU when they join the undergraduate program. The other module that I teach is about globalization and here we're introducing students to some ideas about big trends that are transforming Uzbekistan and the whole world how the world is becoming more connected economically socially culturally and what that means for people's lives for work for business for commerce and trade and also for politics culture it gives students a chance to really think about the world around them how it affects the world in general how it affects Uzbekistan and how it's going to affect their own futures as well. Could you give us some words of motivation for students in 2024? So we're just about to start a new semester the spring semester for 2024 new year, new year if students come with the energy that they came with last semester and work hard we're going to achieve really great things so we're looking forward to seeing you back on campus and starting classes very soon. Thank you very much Mr. Simon it was interesting to me and I hope for our subscribers and don't forget to subscribe to our VMU YouTube channel and comment below which lecture do you want to see in the next interview.