Professor is missing the point: mainland students don't lack sophistication
With reference to the opinion article, 'Student daze' (South China Morning Post, September 24) Kitty Poon, an assistant professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and a part-time member of the government's Central Policy Unit, divulged her insight into mainland students studying at local universities.
There are about 1,500 mainland students at eight government-funded universities, a 10 per cent increase from last year. Most of them came here under the government's initiatives to attract outside talents. To entice mainland students, local universities have handed out fat subsidies, including scholarships and bulk reductions in tuition fees.
In her article, Professor Poon described mainland students as 'more bookish than their peers from Hong Kong and overseas'.
Surely, university education is not all about books, and being 'bookish' should be the last thing we want our local students to emulate, if they are to benefit from such a well-intended intercultural exchange.
Professor Poon said: 'Unlike students from elsewhere in the world, mainlanders arrive at the Hong Kong border under a particular stress, to maintain high grades throughout their period of study here.' But for students studying abroad elsewhere, most are conscientious enough to always maintain their competitiveness in their chosen field of study. How come Professor Poon thought mainland students would be 'under particular stress' when they are deemed to be talented?
