The Review 2005

1 2 T HE R E V I EW 2 0 0 5 Mireille Koenig is a mature student from Switzerland pursuing an LLM degree. “You can get very quickly integrated into this University through all the student organisations, and people are helpful. I felt comfortable within a short time. So much is organised, you know where you are and what you have to do.” The local and international communities are, in fact, enthu- siastic collaborators in providing students with opportunities for learning and personal growth. Local primary and secondary schools, for example, provide students from the Faculty of Education with practical experience. In return, they are offered a range of workshops, further education and support. This is the essence of partnership because both parties benefit. A similar, two-way advantage has resulted from our formal collaboration with Universitas 21 , a network of 17 leading universities from around the world. During the year, finishing touches were made to the U21 Programme on Global Issues, a certificate course to be taught jointly from 2005-06 by the Universities of Hong Kong, Melbourne, Auckland, British Columbia and Nottingham. The course is mainly on-line and each university teaches a different component. Students of the five tertiary institutions study together to gain a deeper understanding of international issues, while the University builds its capacity for e-learning to benchmark itself against other top centres of learning. U21 also facilitates student exchanges and is part of our network of 150 exchange partners around the world. The chance to meet and mix with people from outside Hong Kong extends students’ values and perspectives, and challenges them to think about their position in the world. In 2004-05, 755 of our students joined exchanges abroad for periods of one semester to a full year, while 472 overseas students came here on exchange. Internships are also starting to be arranged further afield, providing students with practical experience in an unfamiliar environment. Visiting Lingnan Professor Gordon Slethaug introduced a course in 2004-05 on American Culture and Globalisation, taught jointly with the University of Southern Denmark via videolink. “The function of universities is to provide students with context. Nowadays that’s an international context and we can make knowledge and perspectives available that weren’t possible five years ago.” The methods by which students are taught also enrich their skills and personal growth. For example, second-year architecture students were required from 2004-05 to work collaboratively to build a structure for a client. They had to negotiate, resolve conflicts and communicate their ideas. This kind of problem-based learning is entrenched in many faculties, such as Medicine, Dentistry and Social Sciences. Field trips also offer opportunities for collaboration. In early 2005 several undergraduate students in the Department of Ecology and Biodiversity and Swire Institute of Marine Science were paired with postgraduate students to conduct field research in Vietnam and Thailand. The trips were funded by the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation, which takes the concept of partnership into the wider community.