Cross-cultural learning is of great significance in education. To broaden students’ overseas exposure and align with the University’s strategic goal of globalization, BANL organized the Tokyo Study Tour in late May. Students were able to learn outside the classroom through this all-round study tour which included visits to two universities, two government organizations, four companies and cultural activities.
During the tour, BANL students attended seminars and workshops in Waseda University and Chuo University. Students and staff from both BANL and the universities delivered talks to present their analytical results. Students learnt abundantly from the interactive discussions and Q&A sessions.
Students also visited two government organizations, National Statistics Centre and Ikebukuro Life Safety Learning Centre. The Statistical Museum in the National Statistics Centre keeps historical information, the data collection instruments and records. Therefore, through the visit, students were able to see their data collection work and compare it with that of Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, gaining insights into their similarities and differences. During the tour at Ikebukuro Life Safety Learning, students were given emergency trainings for fire and earthquake disasters, which is also a unique experience as such training is scarce in Hong Kong.
Students got an opportunity to visit four companies including Tokyo Stock Exchange Ltd.. As one of the application areas of BANL major is on risk management and use of statistics in economics and finance, the visit enabled students to learn more about the mentioned aspects of Tokyo Stock Exchange Ltd. and compared them with that of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd.. The other three companies, namely Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. Oppama Plant, Asahi Factory and NHK Studio Park, are internationally renowned. Visits to these firms allows students to enrich business knowledge on product manufacturing and development, operations and marketing.
This tour balanced the academic and cultural learning satisfactorily by embodying sight-seeing activities in Leimen Asakusa Temple, Sky Tree, etc. The journey created a fun and valuable learning experience to BANL students, providing them a wonderful opportunity to explore and acquire new knowledge in a different culture.
