2010's ten Hong Kong Fulbright Scholars come from as far away as Germany. Research Grants Committee (RGC) Chairman Roland Chin says the diversity among this year's winners reflects how the city is maturing as an important center of higher education.

He was speaking Tuesday at the US Consulate where the one-year full scholarships were announced.

Chin spoke of the Chief Executive's aim to cultivate the city as a center for academic excellence. "Education hub means there are people moving around, coming to study in Hong Kong and going elsewhere to study. So we're doing a lot of exchanges at the undergraduate and postgraduate research levels," he said.

"We have over 100 countries represented among visiting students in Hong Kong, and the best thing outbound and inbound students can learn is culture... Regardless of what they're studying, the important thing is to meet new friends, network, travel around and know the place," he said.

A political science PhD candidate at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), German Heinz Christoph Steinhardt is off to a six-month residency at the University of California at Irvine. He said he chose to take up studies in Hong Kong because of the city's cosmopolitan culture and its proximity to the Chinese mainland.

After graduating with degrees from his native Sri Lanka and the University of Kyushu, Jayaratne Yasa Shri Nalaka, a maxillofacial surgery PhD candidate in the University of Hong Kong, is bound for a nine-month stay at Harvard. He said he came to Hong Kong in preference to going to Japan, where he had also received offers. He also said he liked the international exposure here.

CUHK architecture PhD candidate Zheng Jing said she chose the Sha Tin school over offers from California's Berkeley because Hong Kong gave her unique access to a large body of scholars.

"I was always interested in studying in places other than what I was familiar with," the Xiamen native said.

She will attend Berkley for six months starting in September, Zheng added, "When I started my PhD, I had an offer from Berkeley and CUHK, by that time, I thought I needed more field data and to be more familiar with the architecture of Chinese villages so Hong Kong was a good place. On the one hand, I can visit a lot of Chinese places; on the other hand, I can collaborate with international top scholars."

Accepting her second Fulbright Scholarship at the ceremony, Esther Ho Sui-chu, professor at CUHK's Department of Educational Administration and Policy said she was excited at the opportunity to pursue studies on the effects of home schooling on youth in trasition into adulthood. She'll take up her new posting at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University after her first scholarship to Pennsylvania State University.

Offering some advice to the PhD candidates embarking on their first Fulbright scholarship, Ho said, "First, it takes time to learn and you can take classes you may not have in Hong Kong. You can connect with scholars and cultural life so that you can understand more about daily life of different cultures and bring these experiences back to your life and work."

The Fulbright scholarships are funded by the RGC and the Dow Chemical Company to allow successful applicants to conduct dissertation research in the US. They are administered by the Hong Kong America Center.

China Daily

(HK Edition 06/30/2010 page1)