https://www.scmp.com/rss/327892/feed Martin Campion is the founder of Campion College Consultancy. With 20 years' experience in university guidance with the ESF, he has won awards from the Council of International Schools and Yale University. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com If I was invited to make a list of the things I did not miss from my years in an international school here in Hong Kong, predicted grades would be at the very top of it. Why? Predicted grades are those that teachers estimate a student is likely to achieve in an external examination – such as IB or A-levels – the actual results of which arrive in the mail nearly a year later. These grades are used by many universities to determine the eligibility or competitiveness of the applicant for their... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3046490/time-take-guesswork-out-grade-estimates?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3046490/time-take-guesswork-out-grade-estimates?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Jan 2020 03:37:46 +0000 Many parents who attended university recall an application process that, in retrospect, seemed to take care of itself. Surely this will be the same for their children? Alas, it was a simpler world then, with fewer choices and competing applicants per place. While I do warn parents about agencies that seek to ramp up their anxiety to sell their test prep or guaranteed place Ivy League place, I urge them and their children to be aware of the common mistakes that could jeopardise their... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3018163/making-big-leap-school-university-what-could-possibly-go?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3018163/making-big-leap-school-university-what-could-possibly-go?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Jul 2019 06:59:14 +0000 News of mass shootings in the United States or rising knife crime in the United Kingdom can be alarming but the perceptions that they create and the fear that they engender can be disproportionate to the actual risks involved. I have always found it difficult to talk to students about this topic and dispense some common-sense advice without creating a rather dark picture. How do you tell a young person (or their parent) without frightening and alarming them? One challenge here is the fact that... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2183912/will-my-child-be-safe-university?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2183912/will-my-child-be-safe-university?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 29 Jan 2019 02:02:58 +0000 Are you as confused as I am by all the Brexit news: Hard Brexit, Soft Brexit, No Deal, Back Stop, No Back Stop? Nearly two and a half years on from the referendum, it seems that clarity regarding Britain’s departure from the EU is as elusive as ever. The 21-month transition period up to the end of December 2020 recently agreed on by negotiators only seems to prolong the agony. Higher education has not escaped from that uncertainty and the worries that go with it. What UK universities have always... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2173860/uk-universities-and-brexit-effect?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2173860/uk-universities-and-brexit-effect?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Nov 2018 02:00:30 +0000 ‘Whatever Happened to the 2-Day Week?’ This was the theme of a BBC documentary, itself several decades old, that recalled the widely held belief that the advance of technology and automation would mean that we would all have to work much less and that our biggest challenge would be to decide what to do with all that extra leisure time. We all know what happened: we’re all working longer and harder than ever. Is it a similar story with University Admissions: has technology made things easier or... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2172433/how-technology-changing-university-admissions?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2172433/how-technology-changing-university-admissions?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Nov 2018 05:00:45 +0000 Many IB Diploma graduates would probably agree with the maxim that “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. The IB is renowned – or notorious, in the eyes of some students – for its rigour and the demanding Extended Essay is often cited as a reason why IB students hit the ground running at university. With the growth of international schools in Hong Kong in recent years, we have also seen a greater degree of choice in terms of the “senior curriculum” offered in the final two-to-three years of... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2166592/overseas-admission-success-what-schools-and-curricula-work?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2166592/overseas-admission-success-what-schools-and-curricula-work?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Oct 2018 06:15:45 +0000 In my previous life in a well-established international school, I witnessed an increase in the number of students applying to Hong Kong universities each year – from around 30 to 70 – in the past 15 or so years. I also saw an even greater rise in those actually taking up places – from around three to five, to 30-35. This was by far the most significant trend, with other destinations staying fairly constant in proportion to one another. Why is this the case? While remembering that each... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2163546/wnhk-why-not-hong-kong-dilemma?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2163546/wnhk-why-not-hong-kong-dilemma?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 11 Sep 2018 02:00:15 +0000 Firstly, let’s deal with the use of the term Ivy. The “Ivy League” is in fact an athletic conference: that is, a group of eight colleges in the northeast of the United States that happen to play American football against one another. As they are all highly selective, not to mention prestigious, the term is often used or misused to describe the most selective colleges in the US as a whole. In fact, the likes of Stanford, MIT and even Chicago are more selective than some of the Ivy League, but are... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2159590/why-getting-ivy-so-difficult-and-unpredictable?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2159590/why-getting-ivy-so-difficult-and-unpredictable?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 Aug 2018 02:32:44 +0000 What impact does the “Trump, Trudeau, Brexit effect” have on university applicants from Hong Kong? In broad terms, this refers to the less welcoming image of the United States and the United Kingdom in terms of immigration in general, and the relatively benign stance of Canada in this respect, over the past 18 months or so. More specifically, Trump’s “travel ban”, issued during his first months in office, threatened the college futures of many international students, particularly those from... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2156934/trump-trudeau-and-brexit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2156934/trump-trudeau-and-brexit?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 31 Jul 2018 02:00:45 +0000 Whether it’s the second week of July (for IB and HKDSE) or the third week of August (for A-levels), students holding conditional offers from universities in Hong Kong or overseas are left in a kind of limbo until they can see their results and have those places confirmed. In the case of A-levels, this can be worryingly close to the dates for matriculation (starting) and the arrangement of necessary visas. Most of these students finished their exams and school weeks ago and should be enjoying a... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2154596/exam-results-season-stress-really-necessary?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2154596/exam-results-season-stress-really-necessary?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Jul 2018 08:15:30 +0000