To protect the health of the HKMU community and respond to the influenza peak in winter, the University launched HKMU Vaccination Days for the first time. The influenza vaccination was administered by professionally trained students of the School of Nursing and Health Studies for HKMU students and staff from 21 to 23 November 2023, giving the students opportunities to practise what they have learnt.
The University has been working assiduously to support inmate education. It has launched a Bursary Fund for Prison Inmates and a Learning for a New Life Scheme to offer inmate students bursaries and study support. In October 2022, it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Correctional Services Department (CSD) to provide more comprehensive support for those in custody.
As the CSD set up Ethics College to provide a one-year full-time Diploma of Applied Education programme for adult persons in custody, the HKMU Li Ka Shing School of Professional and Continuing Education (LiPACE) took up the responsibility of offering the programme. In addition to lessons delivered by tutors from LiPACE, there will also be all-round learning activities to help equip students with essential skills and develop positive values, preparing them for reintegration into society. Students who successfully complete the programme will be deemed to have attained an academic qualification equivalent to Level 2 in five subjects in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination.
Two scholars from the School of Arts and Social Sciences (A&SS) won much acclaim from various institutions. The first short story collection, Air Guitar, published by Dr Shawn Shao Dong, Assistant Professor and Acting Head of Creative Arts of A&SS, was shortlisted for the final list of the Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize co-organised by the Swiss luxury watch manufacturer Blancpain, and an influential publisher in China, Imaginist. Meanwhile, his short fiction piece“Chinese Paddlefish” made the list of Good Works by Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Overseas Chinese Writers 2023, a selection by the research institute of Nanjing University studying the Chinese literature of Taiwan, Hong Kong and overseas.
In the meantime, Dr Benson Tong Tsz-ben, Assistant Professor of A&SS, received a Young Scholar Award for his work titled “A Research and Analysis of the Biography Writing of Wang Anshi in Modern China and its Historical Memories and Individual Consciousness”, presented at the 14th International Conference on Sinological Research of East Asia. His other article, “Resources for Creativity from Chinese Classical Culture: A Discussion on the Creative Thinking and Creation Pattern of ‘Old Tales Retold’ and Revelations on the Development of Creative Writing”, won the Theory Award of Excellence in the He Jianming Prize for Chinese Creative Writing. He also received an Award of Excellence at the International Competition in Modern Chinese Poetry for his poem “Sea Spray”, which depicts his family story while alluding to the relationship between Hong Kong and the mainland by the metaphor of sea spray.
