Xinrui’s undergraduate degree was in architectural design. In her third year she took part in a project on conservation planning for historic buildings and was encouraged by her tutors to design public events to enhance the vitality of the local community. These experiences led to her interest in sustainable heritage conservation which is why she chose to study Sustainable Heritage MSc at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage.
After graduating Xinrui completed a successful internship at Historic England. She believes that the MSc has given her the skills and understanding to know which career direction she would like to pursue:
The knowledge I gained during my postgraduate studies helped me to become more certain about the kind of work I want to do in my future career in relation to public engagement and urban renewal.
Although Xinrui studied during the pandemic, she said their were plenty of opportunities to socialise with those on her course, such as the fieldtrip in the photo below where the Sustainable Heritage MSc students went on a guided walking tour of modern architectural heritage run in central London:
It was a tough year when we experienced remote module during the pandemic but our module leader, Katherine, has organized many social events for us."
I think we should do more internships or volunteer activities after the course to integrate heritage conservation methods into our practice. Also, by visiting more different types of heritage institutions or museums and interacting with them, you will gain more interesting perspectives.
We’d like to thank Xinrui for sharing her experience of studying Sustainable Heritage MSc and wish her well in her career.