University of Hong Kong students say no to compulsory studies in mainland China in union poll
Student union poll finds most undergraduates oppose mandatory study trips - but university defends idea and says details are not finalised
Some 97 per cent of University of Hong Kong students oppose a policy of forcing all undergraduates to go to a place specified by the university to study, a student union poll shows.
The online vote was launched after it emerged on Friday that the university was considering having all students undertake at least one mainland and one overseas learning programme. The idea was raised by HKU vice-president Professor Ian Holliday at a dinner on Friday. Students present quoted him as saying: "If you don't agree with the policy, then please don't come to HKU."
Holliday yesterday apologised for that remark and said more consultation would take place on details such as whether the trips would be compulsory.
Some 1,400 students had voted in the poll by yesterday, 9 per cent of undergraduates. Some 97 per cent said HKU should not dictate where students went on study trips. Just 22 per cent expressed an interest in going to the mainland, while 96 per cent regarded "overseas countries other than China" as attractive.
"When fellow students heard they were to go to the mainland … their reaction was very big," union president Billy Fung Jing-en said yesterday after talks between the union and Holliday.
"A single category of 'international' is enough," he said. But Holliday had a different view, citing his experience of organising trips to far-flung parts of the nation in his previous role as dean of social sciences.