Dr. Anita Kovács, a former student and lecturer at the University of Szeged, has been living and teaching in China since 2020. In 2023, her husband, Dr. Péter Hegyes, joined her, concluding a six-decade career at SZTE to begin a new chapter abroad.
Connected to the University of Szeged as both a student and a lecturer, Dr. Anita Kovács has made a new home in China since 2020. Having adopted the Chinese name Yinghua Li, she is now in her sixth year in Shanghai, teaching at an international high school. Her mission is to kindle a passion for chemistry – a field that drives industries from pharmaceuticals to energy and, at the same time, sheds light on everyday phenomena, making the world more understandable and fascinating once grasped. The scale of her task is immense: with nearly two thousand students and a faculty the size of a small village, she must balance academic expectations with the challenge of building genuine personal connections.
Preparing students for the ethical challenges of AI
The international high school in Shanghai where Anita teaches – which follows the British Cambridge curriculum – has earned a reputation as one of the city’s most successful institutions. It sends more students to Oxford and Cambridge than any other school in Shanghai and ranks second nationwide. Here, she teaches both standard- and advanced-level chemistry. She sees particular value in the international system: the Cambridge curriculum is recognized worldwide, which means that young professionals with the right qualifications can pursue opportunities from Peru to New Zealand while being well paid for their work.
This semester, Anita has taken on three additional roles, all of which she greatly enjoys. Beyond her teaching, she serves as a Digital Education Technology Specialist and as the school’s AI-in-Education Coordinator. The latter post is especially significant, as integrating artificial intelligence into the curriculum is now mandatory in China. She notes that assigning traditional homework has become increasingly ineffective, since students can easily turn to ChatGPT for help. Instead, she considers it crucial to teach them how to use AI properly and responsibly.
“We have to face the fact that the old school system no longer works,” Anita explains. “With the rise of digitalization, we must seize the opportunities AI offers. At our school, students are allowed to use AI, but they must clearly indicate in their work – whether homework, essays, or other assignments – how, where, and for what purpose they used it. In their future workplaces, they will be expected to handle AI competently and professionally, and the foundation for that must be laid at school. That includes learning how to use AI ethically and recognizing when AI ‘hallucinates.’ In today’s digital world, these skills are essential for anyone who wants to succeed – provided they are acquired in a regulated way. I love this exciting field and the work and research it involves.”
Bringing digitalization into the classroom
Although Anita once thrived in research – even joining a group at the Chinese Academy of Sciences – she does not plan to continue along this path. Publishing holds little appeal for her, despite the fact that as a PhD student at SZTE she received a prestigious American award for her achievements in 2015, becoming the first Hungarian researcher ever to do so.
“I would continue research if the conditions were like during the time of my husband’s early career, but today it is much more challenging,” she reflects. “Science fascinates me, and I am especially drawn to quantum physics, which I study extensively in my free time. But being a scientist now also involves enormous amounts of administrative work – writing grant applications, preparing papers – leaving little time for real discovery. Under these conditions, pursuing it would not be easy.”
Instead, she finds greater purpose in channeling her expertise into teaching. Her current priority is to prepare Chinese students for admission to Western medical universities. She believes education urgently needs reform – and not only in Hungary. Since today’s students are digital natives who cannot be fully engaged with just a teacher and a textbook, she thinks digitalization must be brought to the classroom in a thoughtful and deliberate way. China, she says, offers far more opportunities to achieve this – including the creation of tailored learning systems that make use of the full range of technological resources.
“Education is at a turning point,” Anita argues. “Those who embrace the advances of the digital revolution, ride the waves of progress, and integrate modern science into teaching will create lasting benefits for both educators and students.”
Beyond teaching A-level chemistry, Anita also serves as Health and Safety Manager for her department, overseeing a team of 32 staff members – a responsibility made all the more significant by the experimental nature of chemistry. Her third role is as a data analyst, compiling reports and statistics on students’ academic performance and test results for both the school and the Cambridge Education Program.
Building on the strong foundation laid at SZTE
Although most of Anita’s work today is tied to China, she has not cut ties with the University of Szeged. Together with her former English teacher Tibor Borbás, she is co-authoring notes for the university’s English-for-science course offered by SZTE’s Foreign Language Center, and she also contributes to the development of course materials and assignments. All of this she does on a voluntary basis, a gesture that reflects her lasting affection for her alma mater.
“Tibor was my English teacher, and I owe him so much – I’m delighted to support his work!” says Anita, who recently earned an additional degree in Scientific and Business English teaching. She explains that the program was not particularly difficult, as she has worked and lived in an English-speaking environment for more than five years and, before that, spent a decade teaching in English at the University of Szeged’s Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical School, where she taught Medical Chemistry.
“Many people may look at my life with envy, but none of this came easily. In Szeged, I was active in numerous fields, participated in research, published papers, and served as both a student and a lecturer. Between 2008 and 2020, I gained the wealth of experience that allows me to work in China today. I could not carry out my current roles without the solid foundation I received in Szeged, and I continue to read and learn extensively to build on it. Traditional teaching no longer fulfills me; but my fascination with innovation makes my current work exceptionally enjoyable.”
Recently, Anita and her husband reached an important milestone: they were granted Chinese green cards, giving them rights nearly equivalent to those of local citizens. While they remain Hungarian nationals, the new status allows them to stay in China without visas or restrictions.
“In Szeged, I studied at an excellent university, but there was a period when I wondered whether all the effort I put into my PhD had been worth it. Chemistry is an extremely demanding field, and despite the years of hard work, I sometimes questioned the practical value of my PhD. When we received our green cards, however, I realized it had all been worthwhile, since we were both granted the status under the Distinguished Researcher or Scientist category. Obtaining a green card in China is extremely difficult, yet we managed to secure ours relatively quickly – within seven months and without submitting any additional documents!”
“There’s nothing I would have done differently.”
The couple envisions their future in China, where they already feel at home. Beyond favorable living conditions, the country’s extraordinary diversity offers endless opportunities for travel and exploration – with sights that never lose their appeal.
“We intend to stay here permanently and have no plans to relocate, although South America and Africa were once on our list because we love to travel and explore. In China, this work provides us with a good standard of living. Public safety is excellent, everything is easily accessible, and we feel completely at ease here. I’m glad life brought me here, and since I’m not one to dwell on regrets, there’s nothing I would have done differently. Everything has shaped me into the person I am today. I have plans and plenty of ideas, mainly in educational development, drawing inspiration from books, interviews, and documentaries that keep me informed.”
Original Hungarian article by Judit Molnárné Szekeres
Photos: Dr. Anita Kovács’s personal archive
