Faculty of Business and Law

Department of Law

ACADEMIC YEAR 2020/2021-

ONLINE SUBMISSION
ASSESSMENT

Module Code: UJGUPW-15-M

Module Title: FOUNDATIONS FOR RESEARCH
Student Name: LIM WAN ZHENG
Student ID: 20009334
Coursework
REFLECTIVE PORTFOLIO
Question:
Word Count: 1990

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I was international student at Northumbria University, Newcastle for my final year degree
and then continued with Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) with The University of
Law, Leeds and over the course of my stay in England, I have grown and learned more than I
thought possible. I came to University of West England, to pursue my master course, LLM
Commercial Law I had never regret from my decision of continuing with the LLM program
with the university, it has taught me so much on the area that I thought I was weak on and
throughout the module I had the opportunity to identify the areas where my skills are weak on
such as:
1. Project Management in Research Management Skills;
2. Willingness to learn in Personal Effectiveness;
3. Research Presentation Skills in Communication Skills;
4. Feedback skills in Networking and Teamworking Skills;
5. Transferable skills in Career Management Skills

1. Project Management

Throughout the course, I have greatly sharpened my project management skills. There

was a situation where one of the course mates named Abbey and I were picked for
presentation for the second session of Shipping Law module. We carried out
individual researches before meeting up for discussion so that we could evaluate data
that we had got, therefore, save more time. I learned that instead of focusing on the
proposed meanings of what I got from my research, I have to ask “why’ on different
levels continuously. I challenge myself to dig into a more in-depth text and content,
whichever I find relevant, then later analyse data I have collected and analysed them
so I could present information to the audience correctly. We aimed to produce at least
50% of the presentation slides on the first day of the meet-up. However, we were back
on time on the first discussion due to the bad habit of procrastination. We
immediately realised what we should have done for the next meet up so we could get
our work done on time and be able to deliver a high-performance presentation to the
audience. I made promises to myself to be more responsible for our work and goals
that we had set. On the second meet up, we kept reminding ourselves of our priorities
and goals. To prevent us from distractions, we had got our phone set into “do not

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 disturb” mood, and to our surprise, we had the discussion and slides done in just 2
hours. We arrived at the University 2 hours before the commencement of our session
for the last meeting and practice before our presentation, so that we could deliver
competently and informatively to the course mates, we were hoping everyone could
learn from our performance. We got great feedback too from the tutor, and our hard
work paid off. This made me realised how our attitude matters when we are handling
work, and it is what we set as priorities.

2. Willingness to learn

Before starting this course, I was fully aware that it might be my last academic year
opportunity to study in a developed country like the UK. Thus, I have been reminding
myself that I should be extra-appreciative and always aim to learn new things not only
from the instructors’ lectures, where one could maybe not follow and catch up with
everything. After finding out about the use of OneNote, it allows me to quickly note
down every remark, including the comments that the tutor had given swiftly. I also
learned that One Note has a recording function, where I can record lectures on my
laptop while I am taking down notes. Besides, I always try to attend all sessions and
raise questions whenever possible because I know that there will always be new
things to learn and different aspect to examine. As LLM course is never like the
undergraduate degree anymore, it relies a lot on self-studying, I spent most of them
researching, compiling information and analysing them. Besides, I have gone through
most of the study skills tutorials on the UWE website, especially the ‘Building Legal
Information Skills”, which had provided me with sufficient and useful knowledge on
research methods and how to apply them on work.

3. Research Presentation skills

Being able to stand in front of a large group of audience, presenting myself and
sharing my understanding is my strongest suit. I had enough training since high
school as I was appointed as the Chief of Disciplinary Board, I got used to delivering
speeches every morning during assembly in three different languages, English, Malay

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 and Mandarin. Later on, I picked up the BPTC. That is why I often appeared
confident during presentations, and hence I have a great sense of pride when I first
entered the LLM course. However, I was soon put back to the ground as I realised
speaking fluently in English is one thing, and being convey a legal issue is another
thing. In the second session of Shipping Law, the tutor had advised me to pay more
attention to the quality of my speech as well as trying to observe the issues in more
depth. I asked one of the coursemates for advice on how to improve mu an oral
presentation. He had shown me the PowerPoint slides of Dr Noelle Quenivet. It is
beneficial and detailed. I have learned many ways to better my performance,
accompanying with a motto: “a good presentation is a well-structured one”, the motto
has given me the motivation to learn, and it is constructive as I can recall the content
more quickly without having to learn and refer every detail by heart.

4. Feedback skills:

One of the lessons in Corporate Governance module, I have learned that feedbacks are
essential as a way to improve ourselves effectively. The tutor had asked us to be
divided into four groups with 7-9 person in each. We had to produce a topic which
had not been discussed before and present our understanding it later in the class to the
others. During the progress of the discussion, there were slight disagreements within
each other in my group. We were negotiating trying to prove our points, which had
brought out our feedbacks abilities to reach an agreement. Fortunately, people in my
group are very open to criticism and disagreement. One of them in the group even
expressed gratitude to those who gave feedbacks regardless of the type of feedback he
had received. After presenting our understanding, we have got useful feedback from
the tutor as well. During this course, I have also learned the importance of paying
attention to feedbacks that we received from anyone. However, I think that, although
it is an effective way to improve learning, we should also beware of some of the
feedback might not be as genuine as we thought it is, sometimes we will have to take
more steps to evaluate the feedback that we had received from others.
 

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 5. Transferable Skills

Nine out of the ten, will ask why would I need an LLM when I already did the BPTC,
wouldn’t It be overqualified as a lawyer? I do not agree with that, as I think there is
always something new to learn. As an LLM graduate, there is a various benefit that I
could gain off. There are a variety of career paths to choose, such as the paralegal,
house counsel of a well-established company or an international corporation, global
commercial law firms, as well as the NGOs. I could also choose to work as a lecturer
in any of the Business and Law faculties with the qualification. I have always been
told that taking part in an LLM course also means uncountable hours being spent on
legal researches, which directly links to several skills that a professional would be
acquired to master. Paralegals, Legal Advisors and Lawyers are bound to utilise those
skills regularly. Employers nowadays often consider the ability to work under high
pressure and ability to process complex issues as their requirement of employment as
it is now a necessity in this rat-race society. Also, UWE has given us opportunities
throughout the academic year, which allows me to be better trained with aspects of
project-based work to suit what is it likely to happen in the real-life profession such as
meeting deadlines, researching in the depth of complex content, the capability of
handling stress, etc.

Conclusion:

As this Reflective Portfolio had allowed me to reflect my weakness and skills that I
had learned during the commencement of the course, I got the chance to look back
and evaluate myself. I must say I appreciate the fact that this module had been made
compulsory for all students; it allows us to improve our interpersonal, career
management, research and teamworking skills. As my studies continue, I am looking
forward to brushing up my skills. Hopefully, I will be even better and ready to put it
to good use in my upcoming dissertation and also my future career and planning.

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 Appendices:

 Evidence for five learned skills:

Module: Shipping Law

Instructor: Mr. Andy Kok
- Activity: Presentation on topic: “Article 4 Hague Visby Rule”
[February 12th , 2020]
- What have been done: Research for topic discussed. Case law and rules in relation to
HVR Article 4 on WestLaw UK, Lexis Library and Books on the UWE library such,
presentation of the topic and feedback from the tutor.
- Skills Learned: Project Management skills; Transferable skills; Willingness to learn;
Feedback Skills. Research Presentation skills
- Evidence: Presentation slides done and prepared by me and the coursemate.

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Module : Corperate Governance Law

Instructor: Ms. Sabine Hassler

 Activity: Group work on topic: “Widening the Concept of CG”
[February 12th , 2020]
 What have been done: Discussion and agreement on the research. Case law and
rules in relation to the topic on WestLaw UK, Lexis Library and Books on the
UWE library, presentation of the topic and feedback from the tutor.
 Skills Learned: Transferable skills; Willingness to learn; Feedback Skills.
Research Presentation skills
 Evidence: Presentation slides done and prepared by me and other coursemates in
group.

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  LexisNexis Academic Certificate.

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  UWE Study Skills events

- Time Management

I have always encountered issue with fearing that there is not enough time for
assignments. But since I used the Assignment Planner available on UWE website, I
manage my time better and better planning on the topic that I am writing. I hereby
attaching my assessment planner for Shipping Law below.

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 - Referencing

I have always find it confusing to do referencing right and avoid plagiarism. I am

always anxious in referencing as I know the negative effect on the academic and
career future if someone who has been found guilty of plagiarism. After going
through the online training course regarding to this section, I finally had better
understanding of referencing and the importance of it. I have attached the evidence of
the referencing practice provided in the training event.

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 - Reading and Writing

I have always been a thinker, but never good at words. As one may think reading is an
easy task. However, I often encounter difficulties on the relevancy of those on the
reading lists that were provided by the tutors. I often came into conclusion that it is
too bulky and I cannot read everything.
I have picked up on the training event where it taught me to select what to read. I also
improved on picking what is important to read. I have attached one of the slides below
where it thought me to select what to read.

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Additional Evidences:

 Work experience

Mini-pupillages

CK LEE AND ASSOCIATES, MALAYSIA

- Assisted in six housing projects and two wills projects.

- Prepared relevant documents such as Sale and Purchase Agreements, Tenancy

Agreement, Land Search, Undertaking Letter, Memorandum of Transfer and Drafting
of Wills.

- Dealt with the clients of the firm by communicating and providing solutions to their
problems. Dealt with the bankers and developers regarding to the housing projects.

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