INTENSIVE residential hall orientation programmes at local universities may cause feelings of isolation in some students who fail to adapt to the demands of the initiation.
The director of the University of Hong Kong's personal development and counselling centre, Ada Wong Man-tui, said some students were unhappy with the strict orientation programme.
'Some students think they should be given more autonomy and detest the orientation requirements, while others wonder whether they themselves may be at fault,' she said.
Ms Wong said failure to live up to the requirements could have a long-term effect on some students. 'They may resist the university environment as a whole because they feel out of things on the campus.' The nine Hong Kong University residential halls - from fledgling Wai Lun Hall which opens this academic year to 82-year-old St John's College - hold their annual orientation two weeks before the start of the academic year.
Newcomers live in and participate in activities aimed at easing them into hall life in the shortest time.
Introduction to the hall, camp fires, cheer practice, familiarisation with the hall's seniors and competitions are all part of hall orientation, the tasks freshmen need to perform varying from hall to hall.
Certain tasks are kept from the public domain as some halls swear freshmen to secrecy. Some also demand that students take part in the initiation the following year if they fail the first time.
