There are always teachers who are particularly memorable. Their words and actions may shape our values and lives for years to come. In his lecture at the University of Macau (UM), Prof Michael Hui, Vice-Rector (Academic Affairs) of UM, said: ‘At every stage of my student life, there were teachers who profoundly influenced my choices of life and aspiration. Thus, I believe a great teacher can change a student’s life.’

Learning to Care for Others

Prof Hui has spent the past 35 years at universities, but the teacher he remembers most fondly is Father Clement Wong, a Salesian priest who taught him physics at St Louis School in Hong Kong during his secondary school years. ‘He has taught me many important life lessons, so over the years I have regularly returned to my alma mater to visit him,’ says Prof Hui.

Inspired by these teachers, Prof Hui believes that life affects life and cherishes the opportunity to spend times with students, whether he was teaching in Canada or Hong Kong, or is managing academic affairs at UM. ‘Good teachers do not only teach students professional knowledge ,’ says Prof Hui. ‘By setting an example, they can exert a long-lasting influence on students in many aspects of their life, including career, learning, family, or treating others.’

Prof Hui’s lecture attracts many students

Father Wong is now in his 80s, but he is still in great spirits, more energetic than many of his students 20 or 30 years younger. Two years ago, Prof Hui asked the priest about his secrets to living a healthy life. ‘Instead of giving a direct answer, Father Wong asked me whether I had seen him lose temper and took it out on others,’ says Prof Hui. ‘Indeed, having known him for several decades, I have never seen him do that. He always cares for young people and enjoys teaching them, and his attitude has subtly influenced the way I treated people over the years.’

Aspiring to Become an Academic

After graduating from high school, Prof Hui enrolled in the Department of Marketing at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), where he was inspired by some teachers to become an academic and he later pursued further studies in France and the United Kingdom.

During his PhD studies at the London Business School, Prof Hui followed his mentor and spent nearly a year at Stanford University for research. It was there that he truly understood what it means to be a world-class university, and he met many great masters of marketing. Among them was a distinguished but very modest professor. Although Prof. Hui only sat in this professor’s class, the professor still corrected his assignments carefully. ‘I was just one of the many ordinary doctoral students, but the professor did not criticise my research studies as being superficial,’ says Prof Hui. ‘Instead he listened to my ideas with great patience, and gave me many valuable suggestions.’

Meeting the Teacher Who Changed the Course of His Life

After obtaining his PhD degree, Prof Hui taught at Concordia University in Canada and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. In 1996, Prof Kam-hon Lee, dean of the Faculty of Business Administration at CUHK, invited him to return to the university to teach. Interestingly, when Prof Hui applied to CUHK in the 1970s, Prof Lee was one of his interviewers, and Prof Hui had taken Prof Lee’s courses before when he was an undergraduate student. ‘If he hadn’t accepted me back then, I don’t know what path I would have taken today,’ says Prof Hui. ‘He asked me to come back to CUHK to teach and that changed my life again.’

The Influence of a Good Teacher

According to Prof Hui, Prof Lee grew up in Macao. After obtaining his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at CUHK, he could have gone to a large company and enjoyed a high salary. Instead, he decided to pursue an academic career and went to Northwestern University in the United States for his PhD studies, and later returned to CUHK to teach. Prof Hui adds that Prof Lee enjoys sharing his ideas with students both inside and outside the classroom. ‘Prof Lee did not ask his students to study for a PhD, but many people at CUHK at that time were inspired by his teaching and decided to do so, and I was one of them,’ says Prof Hui. ‘In Prof Lee I saw where the satisfaction of being a teacher comes from — nurturing students to thrive.’

Source:  My UM  e-version