Concerns are being raised over the welfare of mainland students attending Hong Kong colleges, because of heavy workloads and the stress that naturally arises.

Educational psychologist professor Connie Ho, with the University of Hong Kong's (HKU) department of psychology, says students studying in the city's colleges have much heavier workloads, assignments and examinations compared to counterparts in the United States and United Kingdom.

Pressure from school work was identified as the primary cause of a high-profile suicide of a mainland student in Hong Kong earlier this year.

The 23-year-old Guangxi student, Wei Huiying, was studying economics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on a scholarship which requires students to maintain high grades. Scholarship winners who fail to meet those expectations are at risk of losing the university's financial support.

Her schoolmates said Wei was happy to come to school in Hong Kong and expand her horizons. The young woman's scholarship was her only means of attending school in Hong Kong, without which the cost would have been too high.

Wei was found hanging in her dorm room on March 15 after her classmates reported her missing when they did not see her in class for two days.

A note the young woman left described herself as having difficulties in her studies. Police said she may have buckled under pressure.

In early March, a 25-year-old postgraduate student studying at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology leapt from his 23-floor North Point apartment.

A day later, the body of a 23-year-old engineering student from the HKU was found in a Kwun Tong alley.

The HKU's Hong Kong Jockey Club Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention director Paul Yip counseled students at his own school following the separate tragedies. He believes universities ought to be more vigorous in engaging new mainland students coming to study.

"This cohort of students is a product of the one-child policy and through most of their lives they have done well and built up good support systems but entering an overseas university is a whole new level of competition and they may have trouble coping," he said.

Citing language barriers, the distance between their old support networks and difficulties with supervisors as key contributors to student stress, he said school bodies should help make their transitions less bumpy.

While schools should make the effort to bridge the gap, students also must make the effort to reach out, if not to make the most of their experience, to build new support networks, he said.

"My experience is (mainland students) prefer to internalize their feelings. They need to branch out of their comfort zone and establish new social networks to pursue a better work-life balance," he said.

Supervisors may play critical roles in managing student expectations and mental health, he said.

"Supervisors play a major role in causing stress. Instead of their treating grad students as cheap labor there should be a mutual respect so their study can be a life experience instead of ending in tragedy," he said.

Timothy Chui

(HK Edition 06/01/2010 page2)