Student Report: Hong Kong Polytechnic University Exchange semester: Spring, 2013 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. 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 1000NOK 200NOK 2000NOK 1000NOK NOK 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. 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 Please describe: 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 spring semester of 2013, 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 week add/ drop period after receiving you 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. Academic calendar Arrival date: First day of the semester: Last day of classes: Examination period: Any special events/holidays: 17. January 28. January Beginning of may 15.-29. May Chinese new year break, Easter, Labour day, Birthday of Buddha (17. May) 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? - Unknown. Almost everything is in Cantonese. Of the students at the university approximately 99 % is either from Hong Kong or China. 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 AF2303 Bachelor Written None Financial exam, closed Service book, 3 hours Environment Approved as Comments Elective 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 A very technical course were you get a lot of information that does not seems very important for business student. It is however the easiest course in this package. A course with several similarities with “statistikk” at BI, but it is AF2602 Global Economic Environment Bachelor Written None exam, closed book, 2 hours Elective LGT2008 Shipping and Transport Logistics Operations Bachelor Written exam, closed book, 3 hours, on computer Logistics LGT2105 Quantitative Methods of Business Bachelor Written None exam, open book, 3 hours None Elective LGT3016 Shipping Logistics Bachelor Written None exam, open book, 3 hours Management science Bachelor Written exam, closed book, 3 hours None more practical. You will learn a program called SPSS that enables you to use what you learn in a practical way Logistics A demanding course that is very relevant if you want to study logistics more. Elective. You compute how to produce most costeffectively. Computations are done with pen and paper. All these courses are manageable and the difficult level is not too high. Please feel free to contact us via the International Office at BI, if you need more info