HKU Bulletin April 2010 (Vol. 11 No. 2)

40 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin 41 April 2010 BLURRING THE BOUNDARIES between the classroom and the world Activities beyond the classroom are a major part of student life. The Dean of Student Affairs Dr Albert Chau Wai-lap discusses the challenges and rewards of a new way of learning. People Albert Chau came to his position as Dean of Student Affairs by a circuitous route, via engineering and psychology, but he is as passionate about student development beyond the classroom as he was about teaching and research. After graduating in Industrial Engineering Dr Chau had a change of heart and switched to Psychology, teaching in the Department at HKU until 2005. During that same period he was kept busy as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Director of General Education and warden of University Hall. His believes was an unusual choice for his current position as he had no background in student affairs. “All my predecessors were experienced administrators in this area, I was not,” he says “but I believe that the traditional student affairs sector should be more integrated with the academic programme, it should be part of the learning life. So I wanted to blur the functional boundary between the two. “Today we are talking about curriculum reform – extending it to four years – and the curriculum is conceived as a total experience for students. My thinking, back went to Henan, in China, to work with child victims of Aids and HIV, and they came back and set up an NGO to continue the work.” However, more still needs to be achieved. “In terms of cross cultural exchange we have not realized our full potential yet and the integration between local and non-local students is another area that needs work. We can help by getting local and overseas to work on projects together – a lot of intellectual and cultural stimulation comes out of this.” “Halls are another way of getting students to mix, one third of the places are reserved now for non-local students, and local students embrace this opportunity to mix, which is very positive.” On the subject of hall life he cites his decade as warden of University Hall as one of the happiest periods of his working life. It’s also the point at which he adopted his first dog. He now has two dogs and seven rescued cats. Amazingly, all the animals live in harmony. “It’s because the dogs know they are secondary to the cats,” he laughs. He’s now setting his sights on developing more support for postgraduates, offering cultural adjustment for those coming in from the outside, and career adjustment for those going into private industry. “It’s a very exciting time to be in higher education – sometimes too exciting,” he laughs. “We have the new curriculum, new campus and the centennial celebrations so there are a lot of big projects underway.” But despite the challenges ahead he says, “It’s a very stimulating job, I Iearn new things every day and receive a lot of very pleasant surprises from students.” when I took this position, was quite similar, that the total experience is important.” He has put his ideas into action in recent years by working closely with faculties in designing professional preparation programmes, working out service learning initiatives, and promoting global citizenship. “Now I am helping to support faculties with their experiential learning projects. Blurring the boundaries is another way of talking about better integration between student life outside the classroom and the formal curriculum.” And exchanges have become increasingly popular. “Students really appreciate these sorts of projects, they find them really inspiring,” he says. “What we are trying to do is return the ownership to students as much as possible, this is a major trend in higher education in general. Learning is now less dependent on the traditional instructional method and more on going through different experiences.” “We see an increased independence in students who are exposed to other cultures and situations, they show more initiative, some of them have formed their own NGO’s.” He cites Humanity in Focus as an example. “Initially the founders joined a programme run by the General Education Unit, and after spending time in Cambodia they decided to launch their own programme. I was so delighted, and the following year when I offered the same project they were running their own programme which was open to all the tertiary institutions in Hong Kong. This made me very happy.” “We also sent some students on an internship in fair trade and they came back and set up their own fair trade NGO. Others Dr Chau’s favourite pastime is to play with his dogs and cats.