Chapter 03
HKMU's faculty bring all their academic skills to bear to help students learn effectively. But this is by no means the only way that the University shapes its students' learning experience. HKMU knows that well-rounded graduates need real-world exposure, and opportunities to challenge and extend their existing skillsets. This chapter surveys some of the ways that HKMU is helping its students shine outside the classroom.
HKMU has continued to expand the opportunities it gives students to gain real-world experience and skills while they are studying. External internships and practicums are supplemented by campus work opportunities such as the HKMU Internship Lab and the 'We Want You' programme coordinated by the Student Affairs Office (SAO), ensuring that all students have the chance to flex their muscles in the workplace and test the waters as they decide on their future career choices.
6000+ Internship, practicum and campus work opportunities
In addition to helping students find work directly, HKMU also works with experienced external partners to create inspiring and world-expanding experiences for students. One new programme launched this year was 'Date a CEO, Be a CEO', organised by the SAO in collaboration with the Hong Kong Young Industrialists Council. This was a mentorship programme that put HKMU students in touch with industry leaders to identify their preferred future careers and develop their own skills of leadership and creative thinking. Under 'Date a CEO', students encountered CEOs and other business leaders in relaxing leisure activities and heard their inspiring stories, while students who excelled also got to 'Be a CEO' through job shadowing.
Another novel initiative this year was the 'Fountain of Knowledge' student enrichment programme. This was a regular series of talks, chats and workshops featuring guest speakers from various fields. The interactive activities were aimed at boosting students' English skills, expanding their knowledge of international affairs and the arts and culture, and generally sharpening their critical and independent thinking skills. With sessions on topics ranging from wine tasting to banking, from emerging technology to climate education, Fountain of Knowledge certainly lived up to its name in 2021–22!
Becoming a business entrepreneur is not normally something that happens by accident. HKMU is fostering entrepreneurship among its students with its MetroChallenge, which links up students with successful entrepreneurs and then challenges them to identify their own innovative ideas and develop them into real-life breakthrough projects for social or economic good. The MetroChallenge Lab backs up the entire process by offering proof-of-concept subsidies of HK$5,000 for shortlisted projects, which are eligible to apply for an HK$100,000 Implementation Fund. For the first time this year, HKMU devoted an entire month to getting interested students off to a good start. Its inaugural Entrepreneurship Month put young entrepreneurs together with legal experts and social innovators who could offer valuable tips and experience. HKMU's budding entrepreneurs responded to the challenge in droves!
MetroChallenge
HKMU students finally made their international presence felt again in mid-2022, when a cohort of 15 Student Ambassadors embarked on a 15-day study tour to New Zealand. Apart from engaging in a project course on product sustainability at Lincoln University in the North Island, the group also visited the snowy South Island and immersed themselves in local culture with their host families.
Sport has become a growing focus of HKMU's efforts to enhance its student offerings, in recognition of the importance of fitness and good health for all-round wellbeing. A breakthrough in the year was the University being granted full membership of the University Sports Federation of Hong Kong (USFHK), after six years of associate membership. With facilities that now meet the USFHK's full membership criteria, HKMU was proud to host the USFHK Annual Prize Presentation Ceremony for the first time.
Another sporting first for HKMU was the inaugural Metropolitan Cup, organised by the Student Affairs Office in August. Athletes from educational institutions across Hong Kong competed in four-a-side football and 3×3 basketball tournaments, giving aspiring HKMU athletes in these sports the chance to pit themselves against the best of their sporting peers in Hong Kong.
In May, HKMU's campus was the scene of the first ever HKMU Campus Run, a challenging race that wound its way through 2.3km of the University's three Ho Man Tin campuses. Bringing together staff and students, the HKMU Campus Run proved a wonderful showcase of the participants' solidarity, sporting prowess and mental determination.
A raft of summer sports activities offered by the University meant students could select from diverse sports provided both on-campus and off. Those looking for strenuous challenges could go kayaking, snorkelling or bouldering, while other programmes catered for gentler pursuits. All aimed to achieve the time-honoured goal of mens sana in corpore sano — a healthy mind in a healthy body.
HKMU summer sports activities
As a self-financing institution, HKMU has been especially assiduous in expanding the range of financial support it makes available to students. This year, both the scholarships and bursaries funded by the Government's Self-financing Post-secondary Scholarship Scheme (SPSS) and those funded directly by HKMU and its supporters have risen in total cash value. That has meant that more students than ever — well over 2,000 — have benefited from extra financial support for their studies.
Government SPSS, HKMU scholarships and bursaries
In an impressive ABC of achievement — from accounting to business to creative writing and on to the end of the alphabet — HKMU students have continued to excel across the arts, sciences and business arenas. As this list shows, they have attracted accolades, awards, prizes, publications and subsidies for their diverse achievements, and contributed to HKMU's growing reputation as a nurturer of excellence.
Writing
Film and design
Business
Entrepreneurship
External scholarships
Others
