Talk:University of Hong Kong

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Contents 1 Student Enrollment Number 2 On Hazing 3 Hall education 4 ranking of HKU 5 There should not be "The" in the title 6 Regarding the criticism section

[edit] Student Enrollment Number

The pamphlet titled, "Inauguration Ceremony for New Students 2005/September 2, 2005 Loke Yew Hall", states:

In 2004-5 academic year, the University had over 21,300 students (around 12,000 undergraduates and 9,300 postgraduates). Its student population included more than 2,500 non-local students.

Yet, in his introductory remarks (in the same ceremony), Dr. Albert Chau, Dean of Student Affairs, gave a student population number closer to the "14,000" offered here. Is the pamphlet information correct or in error and can this updated student enrollment be added to the page?

[edit] On Hazing

While the hazing practice in the HKU residential hall may be "tame" (actually I'm not sure even about that) when compared to the standard practice of, say, American fraternities, in most Western countries freshmen had to ask before they would be hazed (say through pledging a frat), whereas at HKU everyone who lives in a dorm has to go through such process. So no I would not characterize the HKU practice as harmless fun when compared to their Western counterparts.

[edit] Hall education

I am told by some of my friends that academic staffs of the University are apointed to take up positions in each hall, it seems to me that the hall education in University of Hong Kong resembles some kind of collegiate atmosphere in the collegiate universities. Could someone add a word or two on that?

Yes, they are appointed as so, but no hall has the right to enrol students and all 10 university faculties are independent from the hall system. I guess the HKU hall system should be different from the collegiate universities, say, Oxford.

Interviews for admission to the LKS Faculty of Medicine in September 2006 were apparently conducted in Cantonese where the applicant was able to speak it.

edited because: 1) Interviews for all subjects were in Cantonese 2) apparently is not appropriate, if anyone disagrees then put a "citation needed" instead 3) Changed where to if, because it sounds like "Cantonese is forbidden in certain places, so the interview had to be conducted where the applicant was able to speak it".

It is very doubtful, at least to me as a HKU student, that interviews are conducted in Cantonese. That has never been the case as far as I know. And that the lessons are conducted in Chinese is also doubtful, because the employment contract of the lecturers states that they have to use English as a medium of instruction, though sometimes, they may use a Chinese word to explain some difficult English words. (Of course, Chinese language courses are not conducted in English.)

[edit] ranking of HKU

Please sign your comments with 4 tildas (4 of ~). I don't see what's wrong with mentioning the Times considering another ranking, the Jiaotong U one, is doing HKU's ranking a disservice. It is ridiculous and impractical to mention every single ranking for every university. The section as it stands now is satisfactory. Jsw663 10:49, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

"The Webometrics ranking of universities, however, is based entirely on the web-presence of the university (a computerised assessment of the size and sophistication of the website). As such it is unlikely to accurately reflect the academic performance directly, but will reflect the internet based activities of the universities."

This is also not the entire truth, according the website of webometrics: "If the web performance of an institution is below the expected position according to their academic excellence, university authorities should reconsider their web policy, promoting substantial increases in the volume and quality of their electronic publications."

Rankings are often bloody bias and inaccurate. It gives the (often ignorant) general public false interpretation of a good/bad university. Universities placed lower down the ranks are perceived to be bad, is nonsense. It depends on the catagories which they are ranked on. Not, for example how many volumes of books they have etc.

Every university have their own strengths. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out on most rankings, Harvard is always/mostly placed 1st; not because it is BEST school in all subjects but the amount of endowment it has for research and funding good profs. Rankings are mostly used for people to feel good about themselves. The best asset of a university is its' students not rankings.

[edit] There should not be "The" in the title

The title should be "University of Hong Kong", not "The University of Hong Kong". See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (definite and indefinite articles at beginning of name) --Neo-Jay 20:36, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

It is called THE university of HK according to their very own website.

Please read Wikipedia:Naming conventions (definite and indefinite articles at beginning of name): "The definite article should not be used for universities, even if the official name of the university uses the definite article... " --Neo-Jay 05:33, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Regarding the criticism section

Is it wise to place so much emphasis on this section, and is it wise at all to keep such a section? Wikipedia is not a forum for discussing "hot topic," wikipedia is supposed to provide objective information to other wiki users. Furthermore, other wiki-article regarding universites don't have this kind of subjective section on their pages. Justicelilo 05:23, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

~Actually I enjoy that section as it appears to be one of the few places in HKU culture where "criticism" is brought into public view. I feel proud of my university when I read such reflections as it functions to allow us to wrestle with what our university is exactly.