Name of the University:
Names of the students:
Lyngaas
University of Hong Kong
Artan Ciljafi, Christine Cheung og Line
Exchange semester:
Fall 2011
I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is located on the North-Western part of Hong
Kong Island, called Pokfulam. HKU consistently ranks among the world’s best
universities, currently ranking 34th and 2nd in Asia (the Time’s World Ranking 2012).
In the academic year of 2009-2010, there were 22,139 students (11,589
undergraduates, 10,550 postgraduates), of which around 6,388 were Mainland
Chinese and international students.
II PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Information before departure
The information packages and e-mails from HKU were sent between March and May
to BI’s international office, who distributed them to us. The information includes how
to apply for student visa, housing, courses, and much more.
Remember to read the course descriptions carefully to make sure that you meet the
pre-requisites before you start to make your course selection. Please note that there
are two different course descriptions; one is quite brief and the other one is detailed.
Please see the links under for course descriptions:
http://www.sef.hku.hk/currentstud/courses/
http://www.fbe.hku.hk/Programme/Undergraduate/courses_offered.cfm?school=SoB
Visa Procedure and travel experiences
The procedure for applying for student visa was well-explained in the packages from
HKU. We filled in a form and attached a copy of our passport and sent it to BI’s
international office. The international office forwarded it to the Centre of
Development and Resources for Students (CEDARS), who took care of the rest, this
includes sending it to the immigration office in Hong Kong.
Remember to read you e-mail often during you vacation. They sent Artan an e-mail to
confirm his address in Norway, and sent the Visa only three weeks before his
departure to Hong Kong. Fortunately, it took only 2 days for the courier to deliver it at
his home. The visa procedure costs approximately 400 HKD (300 NOK), which is
paid to CEDARS to register the application.
CEDARS recommend that the arrival to Hong Kong should be at least one week prior
to the semester start. We will additionally recommend that you book your return
ticked at the same time to avoid difficulties with the immigration office in Hong
Kong. For full flexibility, you can purchase a flexible return ticket. We recommend
that you stay for at least two weeks after the exam, you will have this granted on your
student visa.
Academic Calendar
The semester start at HKU is 1st of September. We chose to arrive approximately one
week before semester start. The orientation week started a few days before semester
start, which included a lot of information about what to expect and how to cope with
living in Hong Kong.
There is a week in the middle of the semester (17th to 22nd of October) where there is
no lectures held. In this period, most student either prepare for their midterm
examinations or travel. The last day of lecture was on 30th of November, and the
revision week is from 1st to 7th of December. The exam period is from 8th to 21st of
December.
During the semester, there were some public holidays, including Mid-Autumn
Festival and the Chinese National Day. We also experienced a typhoon signal no. 8,
when whole Hong Kong was closed (buses, restaurants, taxis, 7-eleven and so forth).
Reception
An orientation day was held a few days before the semester start for all the exchange
and international students, where there was given a brief introduction of Hong Kong,
the university and other relevant information. We were greeted by the University’s
headmaster, faculty and staff members and current students (both local and
international). The orientation day included a campus tour.
Housing
Christine: I was allocated to Student Flats at Sasson Rd., which is approximately a 10
minutes’ bus-ride from the main campus. The student flat accommodates 6 female
students, including myself. There were two bedrooms, with three girls in each, and we
all shared a small bathroom, kitchen and a living room. The cost of this type of
residence was approximately 3,000 NOK for the whole semester.
Artan: HKU sent me an e-mail a month before semester start and informed me that I
had
not
been
given
a
dorm
room.
I arrived two weeks before semester start and I booked two nights at Wang Fat Hostel
which was by far the cheapest hostel on the HK Island. I recommend that you stay
away from Chung King Mansions even though the rooms are cheap. I went to
CEDARS accommodation office where they provided a list of privately owned
apartments that were possible to rent. I called every person on the list but
unfortunately I did not get one of the rooms provided on the list. Then I searched for
rooms on craigslist and found one in Causeway Bay and rented it for a month.
Causeway Bay is somehow the Grunerløkka of Hong Kong, perfect place for young
students, and the best place I have ever lived. A week after semester start I received
an e-mail from the accommodation office where they had provided a room, with four
beds and a small bathroom, meaning that CEDARS were very helpful. However, I
chose to live with a friend until I found a small studio which cost 4600 HKD per
month. I chose to stay there til 11th January 2012. You can call Anita Wan from
“Property Advisor” or send her an e-mail before arrival and they will find you
something suitable. Contact me (Artan) and I will provide you with all the
information you need.
Costs
The monthly cost, excluded housing rent, was approximately 2,500 – 3,000 NOK
The International Office
The Office of International Student Exchange (OISE) is responsible for the incoming
exchange students. The Centre of Development and Resources for Students
(CEDARS) is responsible for the campus life, the students’ wellbeing and present
career opportunities. These two offices are often mixed together. Most information
from OISE and CEDARS is communicated through e-mails.
Exchange promotion
The main event which we attended to promote Norway and BI as a place of study was
at the HKU exchange fair in early November. We shared stand with the other four
Nordic Countries. The Global Lounge was also a place to exchange information about
different countries and universities.
Social Activities
There are a lot of parties going on through out the semester. The best places to go to
are Lan Kwai Fong (LKF) or Wan Chai, where usually all western exchange students
would be, during the weekends.
We had access to two different campus’ sport centers with football, tennis and basket
pitches, athletic track, weight rooms, swimming pool etc. In addition, there was also
hiking tracks behind the main campus.
Culture and Language
In general, most exchange students were with other exchange students from same
geographical areas. This is mostly due to closeness in culture and language. The
locals are friendly when you approach them, but you should not expect them to make
the first move.
The official language in Hong Kong is Cantonese and English. Most locals were fairly
fluent in English, so there was seldom language problems involved. However, some
locals did have a quite strong Cantonese accent.
Cultural and Social Effects from the Exchange Experience
A semester on exchange has, no doubt, been fruitful. We have gained insight into and
understanding and knowledge about, the Chinese metropolitan culture. This is, of
course, extremely beneficial and an competitive advantage for us in opening up future
career possibilities as China’s importance and role in the world is growing rapidly
with its increasing economical power.
III ACADEMIC INFORMATION
The Teaching situation
All courses are all taught in English. In the beginning, it was sometimes hard to
understand what the lecturers where saying because of the Cantonese accent.
However, after only two weeks with lectures, everything was understandable.
The teaching differed from BI in many aspects. First of all, most, if not all, lectures
are taught in relatively small class rooms and not big auditoriums like at BI. This
made it easier to communicate directly with the lecturers and build a relationship with
them. In addition, most lecturers where helpful and did not hesitate to answer
questions asked in class.
The economics courses were very theoretical, meaning that the mathematics was
essential in class, to solve assignments, and so forth. In order to go through the course
material and understand it, it was expected that you master the math at an introductory
level (which is slightly higher than BI math). A disadvantage is that the solutions to
the assignments were never provided.
In all economics and finance courses, you will have tutorials where you thoroughly
review your weekly assignments with the professor’s assistance. This means that
besides from the lectures you were expected to work on your assignments, which in
most cases were challenging and needed 3-6 hours to complete (if you are lucky).
And, when you receive in average 3 assignments per week, it will take most of your
time which also means that you will have minimum time to do independent learning
like we are used to at BI.
In the periods where there are no assignments given, you will most likely have group
projects. One of the problems related to this is that there are almost no where at
campus (except of the canteens) you can do group work. This was a barrier to conduct
group activities and especially to prepare for group presentations.
For most BI students, management courses will be, to some degree, easier than at BI.
One of the reasons is that BI’s staff and courses in management are of a higher quality
than at HKU.
From the first to the last academic day, you should expect that you will not have time
to travel, visit too many attractions and so on. Learning is intense, and locals will not
feel this way and they are used to their methodology and way of teaching. The biggest
difference between BI and HKU is that at BI you have time to revise your material
during the semester, on the other hand, at HKU it is almost impossible to find any
time for revision, except from the weekends.
As mentioned earlier, most local students stick to each other, and so do the exchange
students. Make sure you get in groups with some local and/or Mainland students, so
that you can observe their study habits and what methods they use. It will also be
beneficial to join them in economics and finance courses. In management, you should
join exchange students that take their studies seriously.
In conclusion, the materials is not the hardest in the world, but you will have to use a
lot of time to do assignments and group projects. This will help you on your exam, but
not as much as independent learning.
We recommend that you do not choose too many economics nor finance courses if
you do not want a “major” in economics or finance, because the level is completely
different. You will, most likely, not have much time to explore Hong Kong.. The
courses are, without any doubt, very good, but the teaching and learning methods are
not like the ones at BI at all. Therefore, we recommend that you choose some courses
from the faculty of social science, which is one of the best in Asia. It will feel good to
learn something new. If not, choose management courses.
Required Literature
All literature is in English. The literatures are mostly supporting resources to the
lecture notes. The books will only help you to have an idea of the required knowledge
on discussion questions on the exam. Most of the questions on the exam are based on
lecture notes. Most of the local students never buy the “required” books.
Exams
Most economics and finance exams were given as a mix of multiple choice and
discussion questions. In management courses, the assessment methods are generally
group projects, presentations and so forth.
In economics and finance you MUST know the formulas by heart and know how to
explain the economic intuition behind the formulas. It is NOT enough to “understand”
what the theories say. In most cases, you will not even get partial credit for this. In
other words, to pass the exam you need to focus on the formulas and know exactly
what they mean. It will not be impossible if you do all your assignment and spend
reading week doing projects and preparing for the midterms.
Other
The library and its resources are of high standard and you can enjoy their huge stock
of economics literatures. The IT system is similar to BI’s, and lecturers use this
system to distribute course material and they use the HKU mail to distribute
information and updates.
Description of Courses
Course name
Prerequisite
Christine:
None
Operations and Quality
Management
International Finance
Basic economics
Introductory Econometrics
Statistics
Financial Markets and Corporate finance
institutions
Management
of None
Commercial Banks
Artan:
Operations and Quality None
Management
Business Policy (strategy)
Microeconomic Analysis
Exam
Term paper
Group assignment
Group
assignment’
Midterm
Midterm
Exam
Group assignment
Exam
Midterm
Exam
Term Paper
Group Assignment
(Take this course! The
lecturer
is
very
inspiring and will help
you at other areas than
his course)
Introduction to Accounting, Case Discussions
Introduction to Finance or Group Assignment
Corporate
Finance, Exam
Marketing, Principle of
Management
or
Organizational Behaviour
and
Introduction
to
Economics
Introduction
to Assignments
Microeconomics 1
Midterm Exam. make
sure your math skills
are good.
Industrial Organizations
Microeconomics
(but Midterm Paper Exam
microeconomic analysis or One of the hardest
theory is essential)
courses at HKU, but
you learn extremely
much and a MSc at BI
will be easier since this
course is very similar to
GRA
6031
only
slightly easier. This
course will give you an
advantage in writing
your Thesis where you
can actually conduct
real economic market
analysis
at
an
intermediate level.
Investments and Portfolio Introduction to Accounting Midterm
Management
and
Exam
Corporate Finance
Any other experiences:
Tip: do networking outside campus. Hong Kong is the centre of Asia.
Names and e-mails:
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
Artan Ciljafi
Bachelor of Business Administration (Øk.Adm)
e-mail: Artan.ciljafi@gmail.com
Christine Cheung
Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA)
e-mail: christine.t.cheung@bi.student.no