Lingnan to help less privileged

Lingnan University has announced plans to offer 20 scholarships for the less privileged from around the world to experience life as a full-time undergraduate at the university.

Ten scholarships will go to students from poor regions such as Africa, Latin America and Indo-China, while the other 10 will be offered to students living in clusters of poverty in the mainland, including Guizhou, Anhui and Yunnan.

About HK$20 million of endowment will be required for the scholarships to be sustained for eight years. The university, a provider of liberal arts education, is in the process of raising half of the amount, while the other HK$10 million will be matched by the government.

President Edward Chen Kwan-yiu is optimistic that the scholarships will be available from next year onwards.

'I want to bring in students with whom young people in Hong Kong are less familiar. That's what internationalisation is all about - interacting and sharing with people from other cultures. It will benefit foreign and local students,' he said.

Hailing this year as the start of the new era of internationalisation at Lingnan, Professor Chen said the university had for the first time recruited full-time undergraduates from abroad, excluding mainland China. The first batch of international students includes two Sri Lankans, one American, three Malaysians, and one from Myanmar.