The Review 2008

The Review 2008 Taking a Lesson to Heart The credit-bearing Social Innovation Internship in the Faculty of Social Sciences provides first-hand experiences in the field so students can improve their understanding of social issues, apply their knowledge and skills, and become more socially aware and critical in their thinking. For one group of students, it also exposed them to the heart-wrenching complexities of helping others. The students were placed on the Thai-Myanmar border for seven weeks in summer 2008 to teach English to migrants and refugees, most of whom were from the Karen ethnic group. Many of the Karen students were the same age as the HKU interns and they quickly formed close ties. The interns learned about the difficult backgrounds of the Karen students, some of whom had difficult backgrounds, left families behind, fled at gunpoint or seen loved ones killed, and they were impressed by their resilience. The Karen students even joked about dead parents in classroom games. “These are mobile people, ever ything they encounter is temporary. They have lost family members, friends, homes,” Priscilla Sham, a second-year sociology student, said. “But they have a very strong affiliation to their community and a strong sense of responsibility to uplift their society. I learned so much from them.” One of the hardest lessons for the interns was accepting that they, too, were a temporary presence in the lives of the Karen migrants and refugees and would return to their homes in Hong Kong. “So much happened so quickly. We became very attached, we probably should have maintained some professional detachment. Now we’re dealing with it badly. We’re constantly looking at videos and pictures from our time there and keep turning to each other for suppor t,” Anushri Alva, a first-year politics student, said. But distancing themselves was easier said than done, first-year sociology student Ray Chan said. “It was always on my mind to what extent I should get close to them. I knew I would leave. I didn’t want them to miss me so much so I tried to keep my distance but in the end they have sent me e-mails. I have to reply,” he said. The students are now looking into how they can continue to help the migrants and refugees on the Thai border. And they are doing it with new insights. “My understanding of politics beforehand was not very high,” second-year psychology student Andrea Fok said. “Going there has raised my awareness of what’s going on in Myanmar and Thailand. I’ve heard a lot of things that I wasn’t aware of before. Now when I read ar ticles about these places I can put faces to them and know it’s real people involved.” Focus on Content Our academics are constantly looking for new ways to deliver content and offer students world-class resources. One of the most interesting results in 2008 was a unique par tnership between the Faculty of Business and Economics’ Asia Case Research Centre (ACRC) and the Journalism and Media Studies Centre (JMSC). The ACRC produces case studies for use in business classes and was looking for new ways to present the material.The JMSC was looking for new oppor tunities to showcase its broadcast production exper tise. The two hooked up and the result was ‘Focus Asia Business Leaders’, a high-quality series about Mainland and other Asian businesses that was picked up by BBC World News and broadcast around the globe in the run up to the Beijing Summer Olympics. “Case studies are very black and white, but this ser ies br ings the viewer into the company visual ly,” Professor Ying Chan, Director of the JMSC, said. “For example, in one programme we focused on a piano manufacturer. People might have had the pre-conception that Mainland factories were like sweatshops, but this state-owned enterprise has usedWestern know-how to develop its core competencies. The programme offers new perspectives on business in Asia.” The experience has also brought attention from other broadcasters in the region, opening the way for the burgeoning JMSC to develop new projects. Meanwhile, in addition to producing novel teaching materials, we are also extending the learning experiences and qualifications offered to students through collabora - tions with overseas partners. In 2007-08 we announced a joint programme in legal education with the University of British Columbia and a joint EMBA in par tnership with the Columbia Business School in New York and the London Business School. Students will have the oppor tunity to study at the par tner institutions and receive degrees jointly awarded by all par ticipants. We also established a joint postgraduate degree in periodontology with Peking University, the first international clinical programme to be conducted in China. The Review 2008 • Teaching Rob McBride, Honorary Lecturer in the Journalism and Media Studies Centre, shares his broadcast expertise with students. A Karen refugee gives a farewell performance for HKU students.