To encourage the students to acquire more international commercial expertise, further enhance their global competitiveness and expand their horizons, the Student Affairs Office of the Macao Polytechnic Institute (MPI) organised in the past summer the “Overseas Study Programme”, under which outstanding MPI students went to Melbourne, Australia, and attended a 3-week intensive course at the famous Monash University. The course featured four key aspects, namely developing global perspectives, fostering the ability to adapt to diverse cultures, strengthening the global professional skills and appreciating different corporate cultures. All participating students agreed that this overseas study tour was a greatly gainful experience since their professional knowledge had been deepened while their horizons broadened.
The “Overseas Study Programme” adopted the interactive mode of learning, metaphorically placing the students in the centre and the course trainers on the periphery, who played only a supportive role in facilitating the students to brainstorm new ideas and stimulating their creativity with such class activities as small group discussions, presentations and language games. The students also visited the Immigration Museum under the Programme; from what they had observed, they realised the multicultural characteristics of Australian societies and experienced first-hand the fashion culture of past immigrants to Australia by putting on their traditional clothes. Furthermore, MPI students visited a city council and established enterprises and conversed with the managerial personnel, from whom they were able to learn the Australian corporate cultures and the related policies, and understand how to manage corporations of a considerable size and overcome challenges. The visits to those public and private organisations inspired the students immensely and provoked their thoughts on career planning.
During their stay in Melbourne, MPI students lived individually with local homestay families. The warm and passionate reception of the homestay families and their careful and considerate care instantaneously eased the students’ nervousness, allowing them to quickly adapt to the local daily life and live with them in harmony. Moreover, the students communicated with the family members in English, unconsciously extending the extra-curricular learning of the language. In their free time, the students participated in numerous local expeditions to cultural destinations, including the Queen Victoria Market, the Great Ocean Road, Phillip Island, Dandi Beach, the Melbourne Zoo and the National Gallery of Victoria, and experienced the local customs. They put what they learnt from the course to good use in their extra-curricular activities, and concluded this study tour in a happy and relaxed manner.
The organiser, the MPI Student Affairs Office, commented that MPI has always highly valued the professional development and general education of its students, and expected that the opportunity to study abroad and live independently would have a positive and beneficial effect on their overall development and let new thoughts, trends and cultures of a good quality come with the returning students to Macao, thereby laying a solid foundation for building a multifaceted city of wisdom.
