UGC Funded Project
UGC Funded Project: Transforming internship for transformative learning and reciprocal knowledge transfer between university and workplace
Real world learning provides an important complement to classroom learning. As such, internships provide an opportunity for our students to apply their university education to the complexities of real world problems, issues and challenges in a given organizational context. Yet, how much of our university education is effectively transferred into the workplace and make a difference to organizations facing these challenges?
Just as importantly, how much of the students’ internship experience is brought back into the classroom environment in a structured and systematic way so that this iterative process fosters deeper learning and re-examination of the underlying assumptions that drive our theories, models and teaching methods, and in the process better prepares our students for a complicated world?
This three (3) year Teaching and Learning grant proposal aims to provide the impetus to change the way UGC funded tertiary institutions view student internships by requiring students to document evidence-based examples of specific applications of what they learned at school to Problem-based Learning work-assignments during their internships. This reflective practice is then directly tied back to the classroom environment where such discussions and sharing is assessed as part of the individual student’s subject grade.
This bridging of the “knowing-doing” gap will also engage teachers with a view to “teach for knowledge transfer”. To facilitate the importance of this iterative process in a structured and measurable way, provide students with a framework (called “Staying F.O.C.U.S.E.D.”) developed and successfully tested with students over a seven-year period (by the project leader at PolyU) which has helped students learn better, faster and more than they are currently used to when dealing with complex problems, issues and challenges.
Five UGC funded universities have all agreed to take part with financial backing to this proposed project. We also have the support of Harvard Business School, Northeastern University and the University of Toronto on board to share their international experience with student internships. Using Kurt Lewin’s Model of Change, we plan our three-year project framed around Unfreezing-ChangeRefreezing. Our key stakeholders will be students, teachers, internship coordinators, employers and the institutions that guide them.
Project Leader
Dr. Robert WRIGHT
Associate Professor & Project Leader
Department of Management & Marketing
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Co-Investigators
Lucia Fung P.S
Lecturer I, Associate Director, BBA (Hons)
Department of Management
The Hong Kong Baptist University
Daphne YIU Wing-yee
Chairperson and Professor
Department of Management
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Helen ZHAO Hailin
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Business and Economics
The University of Hong Kong
Albert, KO
Director of Service Learning
Lingnan University
Josephine CSETE
Senior Educational Development Officer
Educational Development Centre
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Basak Denizci GUILLET
Associate Professor
School of Hotel and Tourism Managment
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Chung Chak
Director
Quilty Teaching and Learning Unit
Chu Hai College of Higher Education
Melina LAI
Former Director of CAPS (Retired)
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Susanna LO Y.F
Former Director of
Community Relations (Retired)
The Hong Kong Baptist University
James POUNDER
Charmaine CHAN
Former Director of Teaching and Learning Centre (Retired)
Adjunct Professor
Lingnan University
Former Head and Assistant Professor (Retired)
Department of Business Administration
Chu Hai College of Higher Education
Overseas Experts
Prof. Roger L. Martin
Ranked #1 in Thinkers50 (2017)
Emeritus Professor and Institute Director
Rotman School of Management
University of Toronto
Felix OBERHOLZER-GEE
Andreas Andresen Professor of Business Administration
Co-Unit Head, Strategy
Harvard Business School
Ms. Mary M. Kane
Assistant Dean for Employer and External Engagement
D’Amore-McKim School of Business
Northeastern University
Project Staff
July, Rongjiao ZHU
Senior Project Manager
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Project Associate
Hong Kong Baptist University
Kori, Shuning LIU
Project Associate
The University of Hong Kong
Dr. Muhammad Aamir, KHAN
Cherry CHOI
Project Associate
Hong Kong Baptist University
Kubert, Tianhang WANG
Project Assistant
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Bobo, Ho Yan TO
Project Assistant
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Nick TIEN
Project Assistant
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University