Deiniol Brown shares his experiences as an exchange student in New College, the University of Hong Kong, an endeavour partly made possible by the St John’s Student Opportunities Fund.
In August of last year, I boarded a plane from the UK and made the tiring seventeen hour journey to Hong Kong; an unfamiliar city on the other side of the world, far removed from my home in Durham.
I am Deiniol, a third year student at St John’s currently on an exchange year to study social sciences at the University of Hong Kong, made possible by the St John’s student opportunities fund. Before my exchange year, I was active in John’s student life, and especially the SJCR. When applying, I was excited and reassured to see HKU also had a collegiate system, and I chose New College, one of the residential colleges at the university as my home for a year.
At the time of writing, I have lived here for almost five months, and over the Christmas holidays meeting old friends from St John’s has prompted me to reflect on my time at both colleges.
New college is a recent addition to Hong Kong University’s collection of residential halls, and alongside three other colleges forms a group which is home to much of the university’s international and exchange students.
At first glance New college seems a world away from St John’s; twenty six floors high, modern and functional, with gender-segregated floors and little communal space, a stark contrast to the crooked carpeting of John’s accommodation. The tone is more serious and academic, and the study rooms are by far the busiest areas, filled with PhD students at all times of day.
New college also presents a different feeling of ‘international’ to that which I have seen before, with students from all possible countries and regions creating a global collective, not a subset within the college community. However there are also many similarities, with New college having gowned high table dinners several times a term reminiscent of Durham formals, and the college being host to an array of sports and interest clubs, from Badminton to boardgames to bands, which helps to build a friendly atmosphere and closer community.
New college has made an effort to create an identity, emphasising sustainability through initiatives like the ‘New Farm’ vegetable patch, and having a recycling bin on every floor, but as a new institution with a huge annual turnover it is not as strong as others.
It has its problems too, with very little student voice or agency in the college, and therefore a lack of a core student community to bring the residents together, as well as a lack of welfare resources when compared to St John’s. Despite this, New college excels in promoting cultural exchange between its diverse communities, encouraging commitment to a study and a future career, and pushing students to pursue knowledge on new subjects.
The role that St John’s takes on in its residents’ lives is somewhat different. St John’s is in many ways more of a community centre than a living space, and plays a huge part in the experience of livers-out too, unlike New college.
The breadth and inclusivity of the St John’s community is unmatched in my opinion, with the staff, bar, societies and facilities creating a welcoming and homely character. The established traditions and student groups of St John’s helps form long lasting relationships and resilient institutions, as well as inspiring amazing products like BTC’s plays or Bailey Ball.
However, looking back at my first two years at John’s, I now realise how overwhelmingly British they were, and how intimidating and exclusive they might seem to the outside world. Stepping outside the Durham bubble, and into another university’s shoes has exposed to me how the cliché of college life can be sheltering and potentially isolating.
The differences between these two colleges in many ways epitomise the differences in approach both places have to education, pastoral care, and the ‘university experience’. At certain times I have been struck by how similar they are, as I queue up in my gown outside the college hall, and how different they are, when I see the Hong Kong skyline from my thirteenth floor window.
If both were to be encapsulated, although New college can tend towards a colder and subdued feeling, it projects itself as a globally connected and aspirational group of students, whereas St John’s emits even in memory a welcoming and protective warmth.
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