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5 Medical Faculty News All third-year MBBS students took their first steps to new horizons and challenges this September when they embarked on the unique and exciting Enrichment Year, which will prepare them to rise to the demands of the clinical years and practise medicine with compassion and commitment. The Enrichment Year is a ground-breaking initiative by the Faculty to encourage students to take charge of their learning, acquire new skills, and embark upon whole-person development beyond medical knowledge and skills. Students are undertaking activities as varied as exchanges with Oxford University and other top-tier universities in Europe, North America and Australia; intercalated degrees at universities in the UK and here at HKU; research projects on such subjects as cancer and Traditional Chinese Medicine at Yale University, the University of British Columbia and HKU; and service and humanitarian projects in Mainland China, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the UK, Hong Kong and others. This year’s class is the first to benefit and their destinations reflect both self-initiated projects and options provided by the Faculty, which has worked with partners around the world to ensure that students will have meaningful experiences. The Faculty also organised numerous seminars to provide students with information, guidance and practical support in arranging placements, exchanges and other details. The Associate Dean (Teaching & Learning), Professor Gilberto Leung Ka-kit, said that the launch of the first Enrichment Year has been a learning experience for both the Faculty and the students, and commended their hard work in defining options, communicating with destination organisations, organising learning modules, establishing a platform for ongoing contact between students and the Faculty during the year (see “Staying Connect*ed”). “The core value of the Enrichment Year is that it encourages students to define their learning and discover their own needs. Some students started out with varied ideas that had to be whittled down to a concrete plan. Others knew exactly what they wanted and dove straight into contacting universities and professors and making their arrangements. Still others had to cope with changing plans and adjust. “I have been most impressed by the effort and dedication that all students have shown and their willingness to dream big. Everyone in the Faculty is looking forward to hearing about their experiences at the end of this fantastic year of opportunity,” he said. Staying Connect*ed How do you keep track of students when they are far-flung across the globe for the better part of a year? And how do you sustain a sense of community and intellectual enquiry? These are challenges that arise in any exchange programme, but are particularly pertinent to the Faculty which is letting a whole cohort go off the timetable. An online platform, connect*ed, is created to enable more than 200 students to stay in touch with their peers and the Faculty throughout the year. Medical students have been assigned to small peer groups and each group has a faculty mentor. “The students will share experiences, engage in discussion and debate, and receive timely learning and psychological support. We hope this will create dynamic virtual communities for them to stay in touch with each other as they pursue diverse projects, explore new areas of study or immerse themselves in unfamiliar cultures,” said Dr George Tipoe, Assistant Dean (Enrichment Year).