Source: My UM
It’s been a month since the start of the new semester. How have you been doing? Starting from this academic year, UM officially designates every Wednesday as the Collegiate Learning Day. On the afternoon of every Wednesday, students will participate in co-curricular activities instead of having formal classes. The purpose of this new initiative is to help students develop soft skills outside of their chosen fields of study through an experiential learning model. In this issue of My UM, we interview several students and teachers and ask how they enjoy lives on campus to the fullest and what they think of the Collegiate Learning Day.
Like Being on Holiday Keith is a freshman from the Department of Government and Public Administration. Keith enjoys classes and his life in the RC so much that he feels like he is on holiday. ‘Living in the college is like being on holiday , and taking care of myself makes me feel so grown-up,’ he says. ‘It’s completely different from high school—in high school I spent six years with the same people, but here I get to meet new people from different faculties and countries in different classes, which allows me to make more friends and helps improve my communication skills.’
Lucius, one of the friends Keith has made at UM, turns out to be from the same school as Keith. Lucius studies in a different faculty—Faculty of Business Administration, but the sense of camaraderie among old schoolmates quickly formed a friendship between the two. Both living on campus, they have taken to participating in extracurricular activities together. Lucius finds attending classes taught in English a ‘real challenge’, but is confident that he will get used to it in time. A sports lover, Lucius was thrilled when he learned about all the sports facilities on campus. ‘The sports facilities here are amazing. You can often find me in the badminton court or the swimming pool after class. I’ve also joined several student organisations, which I hope could help hone my social skills.’
A New Learning Experience
Christina Chen is a freshman from the Faculty of Business Administration, but she is no stranger to UM. ‘I’ve attended many lectures at UM before, and teachers and students here are very friendly. So adapting was easy for me,’ Christina says. ‘The professors are very professional and devote themselves to teaching. Their views are refreshingly new. English classes are the most fun. They are lively and interactive.’
For Clement Chan, a freshman from the Department of Communication, fun time doesn’t end with the class. Clement still brims with excitement when recalling how he sang on the stage with the rector, vice rectors, and college masters on the Collegiate Learning Day kickoff ceremony held on 9 September. ‘It’s been barely a month since I came here, and I already had the privilege of giving a stage performance. I think the residential colleges really do an excellent job of providing opportunities for us students to reach our full potential.’ He welcomes the launch of the Collegiate Learning Day, saying that it makes up for the lack of time to participate in activities on weekdays due to classes, and provides an opportunity for experiential learning, or ‘learning by doing’, which is what each RC encourages students to do.
Real College Experience
They say, you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. But sometimes it’s more like, you don’t know what you are missing until you get what you didn’t have. At least it’s true for Veon Cheong, a junior from the Department of Finance and Business Economics, who spent one year on the old campus. Hoping to live in an RC was one of the reasons why Veon chose UM in the first place, a wish that remained unrealised until he moved to the new campus. ‘Studying on the old campus was like going to work. You went home when there were no classes,’ he says. ‘And now, I feel like I can finally have a real college experience.’ Asked about the Collegiate Learning Day, Veon gives his thumbs up. ‘I think co-curricular activities will help us meet more friends and learn knowledge outside our major. I hope the colleges will organise more activities based on students’ interests to attract more people,’ he says.
Activities Are an Integral Part of Education
In the new academic year, UM recruited 40 new faculty members from around the world. De Bao Xu, from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, is one of them. Having worked in liberal arts education in the United States for 23 years, Xu describes UM’s teaching facilities as ‘very good’. ‘The rector and vice rectors have very good ideas about education,’ he says. ‘The “4-in-1” model of education deserves special mention. This education model allows teachers and students to teach and learn from each other and encourages critical thinking on the part of the students. Activities outside the classroom also serve important educational purposes. ’
Prof Xu has been very supportive of college activities since he joined UM. As an external advisor to Chao Kuang Piu College, he visits the college every week to chat with students there over dinner. ‘The college is a pleasant living and learning environment, with many different activities,’ he says. ‘I always enjoy chatting with the students, and I’m getting to know more and more about them with each visit.’ As for the university’s requirement that all faculty members must contribute a minimum of one hour every week to community and peer education, he says, ‘I think this is part of liberal arts education. When I was in the US, my office was open all the time. Liberal arts colleges in the US organise lots of activities, and both faculty members and students are active participants, because they know activities are an integral part of education. I think the RCs should organize more activities in the future.’ Next month Xu will give a presentation in the college about the importance of reading classics.
Sin Sai Weng, an associate professor from the Faculty of Science and Technology, has been teaching at UM for many years. He is very popular with the students for his ability to explain complicated theories with real life examples. ‘Everyone is back for the new semester, and the campus now bustles with activity. It won’t be long before everyone settles into campus life, especially with the increased sense of belonging fostered from living in the RCs,’ he says. Prof Sin enjoys working at UM and is happy to participate in college activities. ‘The most important job of a teacher is to spread knowledge that will benefit the students. I myself love doing sports, and I have some experience in public speaking which I would love to share with the students.’
