Insight: intercultural exchanges at colleges fall short of expectations
Thousands of Hong Kong students are preparing to study abroad, either for school, full-time higher education, or exchange. Many more are submitting applications to enter the city's increasingly international universities.
As these students make their choices, they will be bombarded with promotions extolling the benefits awaiting them. These will include the friends from across the globe they will make at college, and the opportunities they will have to develop the "intercultural competency skills" essential for future careers, and for facing the challenges of the world.
Rice and noodles should sit alongside the stodgy potatoes. It is amazing how often they don't.
The number of students studying outside their home countries almost doubled to 3.6 million in the decade to 2010, according to Unesco.
Hong Kong is becoming an increasingly popular destination. In 2012, the University of Hong Kong alone received 18,000 non-local applications from 96 different countries, according to its new Global Admissions Profile.
But there is increasing evidence from student surveys and academic research that the intercultural experience falls short of expectations.
The desired cultural mix often fails to happen. National groups stick together, whether they be inbound students in Hong Kong, or outbound students in Australia, the United States or Britain.
