Student Report:
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Exchange semester: Fall, 2014
I.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Most of the information about the application will be received through the email you
have registered. You will also get update from BI during the whole application period.
If you had any question you just had to email them. There were not any special
difficulties encountered during the application period. You may need to use some time
to go to the bank and get a financial agreement, which is required. After the whole
application for school and visa, you will have to apply for the student hall. That is a
very easy process, which just take few minutes.
The school provides student hall to exchange students. They have two student halls
located very close to the university. If you have the opportunity you should choose the
student halls, because it is very cheap compared to the other alternatives.
We travelled to Hong Kong through getting exchange in Heathrow England then direct
plane to Hong Kong. When arriving at the airport you have different alternatives to get
to the student hall. You can take a taxi, which is located just outside the terminal you
arrive at. The cost for the taxi travel will be about 250-280 HKD. Other option is
taking the bus. The bus is also located on the opposite direction of the taxi station.
That is much cheaper, and is about 20 HKD per person. The bus will take about 1.5
hour, while the cab will take about 45 minutes. Also the train is available, but then you
have to change to other transport vehicle after arriving to the correct station. Locating
the taxi station and the bus station is very easy, since there is sign everywhere at the
airport. But before you arrive Hong Kong, you will receive your VISA from your
school, and the school sends out important information to you, such as maps for how
to get to central in Hong Kong and to the school from the airport.
Applying for a visa
You will need to apply for a student visa when studying in Hong Kong. This student
visa will last for about 6 months. The school will email you the link where you can
download the form you need to fill. It is good to prepare two or more photos of
yourself. The form will be handed to BI, where they will further send it to the school.
They will handle all the rest of the application. You will need to pay 500 HKD
through Internet when applying for the student visa. There will be clear instruction
about how to pay.
Costs
The cost during your stay will be very different from months to months. At the
beginning you might have to buy books for some of your courses. Remember that
many of the courses taken, may not require any books. It all depends on what courses
you are taking. If you eat out you can get very cheap local food. If you go to the
supermarket the prices will be similar to European prices. The table below is just a
rough overview of the total spent.
Rent
Books
Food
Transport
Other
6000NOK*
400 NOK**
2000NOK***
****
*This is for the entire semester
** This is for the entire semester, but this depends on which courses you will choose.
*** The food prices depend on where you eat, the school canteen is very cheap and
very good. (Breakfast 25 NOK, Dinner 35 NOK). But Hong Kong is a big city and
you can eat in every price range.
**** This is also individual, are you going sightseeing in the city you might take bus
or MTR (train), but this is very cheap – and you pay your transport with your octopus
card (The Octopus card is a reusable contactless stored value smart card for making
electronic payments in online or offline systems in Hong Kong). You will use your
octopus for almost everything, buying snacks at 7/11, food stores, school etc.
In general you will be surprised how cheap Hong Kong can be compared to Norway.
Culture and language:
Most of the students and the faculty can speak English. The problem could occur when
you travel outside the school area, since there are a lot of people who cannot speak
English. Problem often occur when you try to get around with taxi. Many taxi drivers
cannot understand or speak English. Therefore I recommend all the students who live
at the student hall or somewhere else, try to get a card with the Chinese address, and
not the English one. Additional to this you can download a app that is called “Hong
Kong” and it will convert your western written address to Chinese.
NOTE: Even though local people could speak English, you might experience that they
may not feel comfortable speaking English with “western” people, and therefore
sometimes try to prevent it.
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
The campus
- The university campus consists of many large brick complexes in different shapes
and sizes, located in one the more central areas of Hong Kong. Surrounded by busy
highways from all directions, the campus atmosphere is quiet and peaceful. The
campus has several canteens and cafés of which are popular amongst students. They
carry primarily eastern dishes, with some western attributes. The campus also contains
a 7-eleven, a bank and a book store. The university has several sports facilities such as
a swimming pool, soccer pitch, basketball court and a small gym amongst others. The
library is open 24/7 and containing several floors of desks for studying, computers and
group work areas. But be aware that it number of seats are very limited in the more
busy parts of the semester in relation to the number of students. The lecture hall and
class room interior does not specifically carry any modern impression, although it is
fully equipped with modern presentation tools.
Current faculty divisions
- The teaching units are grouped under six faculties and two schools: Faculty
of Applied Science and Textiles, Faculty of Business, Faculty of Construction
& Environment, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Health & Social Sciences, Faculty
of Humanities, alongside with School of Design & School of Hotel and Tourism
Management. It offers more than 130 postgraduate, undergraduate and sub-degree
programmes.
Approx. number of students
- There are over 28 000 students in total in PolyU. In the fall semester of 2014, there
were approximately 300 exchange students (mainly under-graduates). Out of these,
roughly 2/3 came from universities in Europe or North America. Heavily represented
countries were USA, Canada, France, Great Britain and Finland.
Study structure (under-graduate)
- At the Faculty of Business the courses usually contain one lecture and one tutorial
per week. 50 % of your grade will usually be evaluated during your “course work”
(meaning what you do during the semester). This can be presentations, midterms,
weakly rapports, assignments and attendance/participation. Most tutorials take
attendance. Your will have to work in groups as well as individually. The final exam
will normally contribute for the remaining 50 % of your grade in each course.
Course registration
Were you able to register for courses before arrival? Any difficulties?
- Yes. You start the process of choosing subjects online far in advance of arrival. First
you list up several courses you would like to have. Then after a while you will get
feedback from PolyU if they think these courses can be combined. Then after you
finish this process, you have to find out if these courses have vacancies. This could
lead to you having to do changes to the courses registered in the first round. Then you
have to match the subjects that could fit in to a schedule without colliding with each
other. You would usually have 5 lectures and 5 tutorials per week. After a long
puzzling process you might have an entirely new combination of courses. After
arriving you will receive your actual schedule, which could be a completely new
combination than in the last step. All in all, this is a highly complicated process,
stretching over several months with many different deadlines.
If the school has a lottery or bidding system, describe this system and your
experience in detail.
- Not applicable for PolyU.
When and how long was the period for adding/dropping courses?
There is a 2 weeks add/ drop period after receiving your academic schedule. However
this possibility exists more in theory than in practice. Be prepared to be highly
proactive and assertive if you would like to make any changes to your given course
package. Start early and show up personally to speak with the right person of your
academic department. The academic department could help you even if it says that the
course is full, because they want your stay to be as good as possible. You will get a
contact person in your host department and you can ask them about everything
additional to get help in the add/drop period if necessary.
Academic calendar
Arrival date:
First day of the semester:
Last day of classes:
Examination period:
Any special
events/holidays:
26. August
1. September
End of November
5. -20 December
National day. 1.
October
Other:
Arrival
Was the administration and faculty well-prepared for your arrival?
- Before arrival you will receive sufficient information on e-mail. You will also
receive a lot of info when you arrive at the Student Hall (if you choose to live there).
Did the school’s students participate in the reception of the exchange students?
- You were assigned a “Buddy” when you were accepted to PolyU. The buddy sends
you an e-mail where the person (of which is a local student at PolyU) welcomes you.
The services provided by the buddies after arrival may vary. There is no other program
with the buddy than what you and the buddy arrange together yourselves.
Describe the introduction week?
The introduction week consists of a 2 hour long orientation meeting for all exchange
students. After this you are encouraged to gather up with the other students from your
own country to get to know each other. You have the opportunity to sign up for some
few activities the following weeks, such as city tours and cooking events. Note that
these activities have very limited vacancies. Therefore the only significant
“introduction week”-activities existing for exchange students were the ones arranged
by the exchange students themselves over the Facebook-group. Most of the exchange
students were living at the Student Hall of which there was daily proposed over the
Facebook-group to meet in the reception area for dinner gatherings or different
explorations of the city. This formed the meeting place and foundation for social
activities amongst the exchange students.
The International Office
Is there an international office?
- Yes. There is an international office.
As an exchange student, did you receive sufficient and relevant information? In
English?
- You will receive almost all the info you need in English, in written form. However, if
there is some info you still feel you are missing, you better get a Cantonese-speaking
friend.
Promoting BI and Norway
What kind of activities were you involved in to promote exchange to Norway at
your exchange university?
- None.
Social activities
How was your relationship with native students?
If you live in the student hall you will experience a good relationship with many native
students on the same floor as you. But on average there is a greater language-barrier
between native and exchange students.
How was the relationship among the exchange students?
- Amongst exchange students the relationship was very good. Friendships were
formed very quickly in the beginning of the semester. The other exchange students
will be just as eager to meet new people as you.
Is there a student organization, and if so, are the exchange students a part of it?
Yes, there is, but not available for exchange students as the stay here is to short.
Are there any special activities and gatherings for exchange students?
There are some, but usually it will be arranged by exchange students themselves.
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
-
-
Describe the teaching style.
The teaching style is different from BI. You usually have one lecture of two hours and
one tutorial of one hour per week for every subject. The lectures are similar from
lectures at BI and the professors usually use PowerPoint. The sizes of the classes are
between 40 and 100 students. In the tutorial you have smaller groups of students,
between 10 and 20. Here you discuss what you learned in the lecture.
Language of instruction
The language of instruction is English. Same with all the course material. The English
accent of some of the professors can be difficult to understand.
-
Is the teaching primarily practical or theoretical?
The teaching is both practical and theoretical. The professors often use real life
examples to explain theory. PolyU has as one of its slogan to offer practical
knowledge.
-
How is the workload compared to that at BI?
The workload would feel like larger because you have all the coursework you don’t
have at BI during the semester.
-
Describe the relationship between professors and students.
Because of the small number of students in the tutorial classes, you get much more
personal relationship with your professors.
-
Describe the relationship between the students in the classroom.
The teaching style encourages discussion between students.
Course materials
-
-
-
-
Describe the course materials used (books/literature, online articles, Powerpoint.
Mostly PowerPoint and articles.
How do you estimate the level of the course materials in comparison to BI?
Less than BI. Note that an average course at BI carry more credits than an average
course at PolyU.
Exams
The exams are based on the material that the lecture uses in the lectures. Usual the
material that is being used in tutorials will not be tested in the exam but will be
important during the continues-assessment. In some of the courses there will be no
book and the PowerPoint’s the lecturer gives you are the only material that will be
tested in the exam. The large majority of the courses offered by PolyU have one
continues assessment component and a final exam. If you select a language course
(Mandarin or Cantonese) you might not have to take a final exam. The evaluation is
usual 50% continues assessment and 50 % final exam. The final exams are written and
it varies if they are open book or closed book (look at the course descriptions they
provide good information). The continues-assessment component varies a lot (again
the course description provides good information) you should however expect to have
a midterm exam and one group project. A group project at PolyU usual contains one
oral presentation and one written report. The midterm exams usual are in week 6-8 of
the academic calendar and cover about half the subject materials. Class participation
and attendance usually counts for 5 % of the total marks, these marks are quite easy to
get if you contribute in the discussions in the tutorials and ask some questions after
other groups have presented their projects.
Library and technology.
The library at PolyU is very good. You have easily access to computers in the library
and they are equipped with all the programs you will need. The wireless Wi-Fi
connection is also good in the library. To use the printers and copiers you will need the
“Octopus card”. Several of the books that are being used in the subject are also
available at the library and you can loan them by showing you student ID (a lot of
people takes copies of the books so they don’t have to buy the book themselves).
Descriptions of some of the courses taken
Course code
Master/Bache Exam form
prerequisites
and name
lor
AF4324
Bachelor
Written
None
Financial
exam, closed
Planning
book, 3 hours
Approved as
Comments
Finance
The professor
in this course
was very
good and the
materials
used are
interesting
An
interesting
subject but a
large part of
the subject
you will have
been through
before in
previous
courses at BI
The course is
based on
presentation
and
assignments.
AF2602
Global
Economic
Environment
Bachelor
Written
None
exam, closed
book, 2 hours
Elective
MM4311
Strategic
management
Bachelor
None
None
Strategic
CBS240
Elementary
Chinese 1
Bachelor
Elective
AF4513
Corporate
Social
Responsibility
Bachelor
None, you
None
will have
three tests
during the
course that
will set your
grade
Written
None
exam, closed
book, 3 hours
Basic course
in Mandarin
Elective
We would strongly recommend Hong Kong for your exchange period. Hong Kong is a truly
amazing city, and is something that you simply must explore.