Go global: OUHK students embrace cross-cultural experiences
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The global citizen of the 21st century needs to have a cross-cultural outlook. In order to cultivate a global worldview, nothing compares to living, learning and working with people from other cultural backgrounds. The Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) therefore encourages students to go overseas on exchange programmes, study tours and internships. As its range of full-time programmes expand, the University is making every effort to expand learning opportunities outside of Hong Kong for students.
Today, every OUHK School proposes study tours and exchange programmes with specific themes and areas of learning. Recently, the School of Education and Languages and the Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration have broken new ground to integrate overseas exchange elements into their curricula. The School of Education and Language’s new initiative was built on its long-term partnership with the University of Warwick’s Centre for Applied Linguistics, which has for many years enabled students to participate in a three-week summer English Language and Culture Immersion Programme at Warwick. Since 2018 summer, the partnership has been extended into a separate credit-bearing course for English Language Studies and English Language Teaching students which takes place concurrently with the Immersion Programme but focuses on intercultural pragmatics. The Business School, having run overseas Business Learning Programmes for several years, introduced a mandatory Global Immersion Programme for all full-time students admitted in or after 2018. The Programme includes two weeks of studies at prestigious universities in different parts of the world, with visits and exchange activities to inspire students to engage with global issues. So far students have exchanged to universities in Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland and Australia.
At the same time, internship opportunities for OUHK students are becoming increasingly diversified with more offshore options. The Student Affairs Office has teamed up with the Hong Kong Young Industrialists Council (YIC) and the Hong Kong-Shanghai Youth Association to run signature programmes in Vietnam and Shanghai, respectively. In the academic year 2017–18, the total number of OUHK students who took part in internships locally and abroad rose to over 3,100, all of whom gained valuable working experience while forging professional networks and broadening their cultural horizons. A fraction of them gained unique experiences participating in overseas volunteer internships, leaving an impact in countries as diverse as Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, India, Italy, Morocco, Nepal, Poland, Romania and Sri Lanka.
With copious funding and scholarships available from both government and private sources, OUHK students nowadays are well-placed to travel and explore the world as part of their OUHK education. Under the government’s Self-financing Post-secondary Scholarship Scheme alone, some 400 students received Reaching Out Awards in support of their international field trips, internships and external courses in 2018–19, totalling over $4.3 million.
OUHK students coming back from exchange and internship programmes share their experiences:
Rodney Chan Kin
Business Learning Programme 2018 @ University of Technology Sydney (Australia)
“I was very impressed by Dr Jochen Schweitzer’s classes at the University of Technology Sydney. Dr Schweitzer asked many stimulating questions and taught us the process of design thinking. I found the visit to the innovation lab of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia particularly eye-opening. We learnt about how they focus on modern-day opportunities such as cybersecurity, robotics and virtual reality.”
Evangel Chan Ying-tung
English Language and Culture Immersion Programme & Intercultural Pragmatics Course @ University of Warwick (UK)
“I joined the English Language and Culture Immersion Programme at Warwick last year, and this year I returned for the new Intercultural Pragmatics Course. The previous programme was more casual, with lessons on drama, debating etc., and involved staying with a host family. This time it was a formal course, and I was greatly inspired by academics of different nationalities who discussed theory in light of their personal cross-cultural experiences.”
Sica Chan Wing-sze
The Bloom of Youth Global Internship Programme @ Wellington Bird Rehabilitation Trust (New Zeland)
“It was a very special experience to take care of all kinds of sick and disabled birds and ducks at Wellington Bird Rehabilitation Trust — there is no such NGO in Hong Kong! I’m thankful for the trust of my supervisor, who gave me plenty of room to try to solve problems myself. It was also great to experience Kiwi culture in Wellington.”
Kailash Prasai
Cross-Cultural Internship Programme @ Jamaica YMCA (USA)
“During the seven-week placement at Jamaica YMCA, I was first placed in the Membership Department and then rotated to the Fund Development and Marketing Department, so by the end I had gained a variety of skills. I was also invited to attend a leadership meeting and gained insight into the dynamic way that topics such as performance evaluation, event planning and fundraising were discussed.”