communication. Over the past three years, there have been more than 10 exchanges between the School, Leipzig University and Ohio University. The success of the Global Triangle has enabled the three universities to continue to engage in collaboration on an international level, exploring new areas in academic and professional fields.

In order to equip students with the ability to contribute to solving global challenges, since 2015, the School of Communication has established a solid “triangular relationship” with two world renowned universities, Leipzig University in Germany and Ohio University in the United States, both of which are leaders in the field of communication. Over the past three years, there have been more than 10 exchanges between the School, Leipzig University and Ohio University. The success of the Global Triangle has enabled the three universities to continue to engage in collaboration on an international level, exploring new areas in academic and professional fields.

• Germany - Leipzig University
• United States - Ohio University
• Hong Kong - Hong Kong Baptist University

Leipzig University is one of the oldest tertiary education institutions in Europe and reputed for its strategic communication, while Ohio University, well-known for its journalism programme, also has over 200 years of history. Geographically, we are three points on the map forming a triangle that spans Asia, Europe and the US, helping to foster stronger international exchanges.

Since 2015, the School has organised study trips for more than 100 undergraduate and postgraduate students to Leipzig University and Ohio University. During one of the one-week exchanges at Ohio University, students of HKBU and Leipzig University were allowed to attend any lecture offered to communication students of Ohio University. Students had a chance to stay with their host families for the entirety of the trip to experience the local culture. Cultural activities included visiting an Amish Market and a rehearsal of the Marching Band of Ohio University, which ranks one of the best in the country, as well as attending an African-Indian dinner in one of the professors’ homes. This kind of global experience enables our students to gain first-hand experience and a multi-dimensional understanding of the life, studies and culture of a different country.

In return, the School has received students from Leipzig University and Ohio University. Up until this year, HKBU has hosted participants from Leipzig University and Ohio University for five times already. The Future Science Leaders Research Workshop was organised through the collaboration of the Centre for Media and Communication Research in the School of Communication with Leipzig University, Ohio University and Zhejiang University in November 2015.

The three-day conference aimed at providing a platform for exchange among academics, educators and advanced doctoral students on the latest development paths of research practice. It also offered the participants opportunities to discuss the future four-way collaboration on a variety of academically and socially enriching activities, such as symposiums, research projects and study tours.

Since 2015, the Triangle Capstone Class has been a joint initiative by the School, the Institute of Communication and Media Studies, Leipzig University and the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University to expand both academic and professional education among a selected group of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Europe, and Asia. It is hosted by all three universities.

The Capstone Class comprises a series of seminar sessions conducted by professors from all three institutions, which includes lectures on social media analysis, strategic online communication, international journalism, and branding and advertising, which provide insights into recent international research as well as applied case study exercises. Such international collaboration has helped broaden participants’ horizons, and also built their global knowledge and cultural competency.

It is the hopes of the School to expand from the Global Triangle to create more such triangular relationships with top universities in other regions, so that more students and faculty will be able to benefit and gain insights from these international collaborations at various levels.

Click here to learn more about students’ exchange experience at Ohio University in 2018.

international agency in Hong Kong. In early summer in 2018, around 10 students from the University of Missouri partnered up with 10 of our Public Relations and Advertising majors to collaborate on an ice-cream campaign project for McCann & Spencer Hong Kong’s client Nestlé.

The Missouri Culture Programme is the result of the collaboration between the Department of Communication Studies and the University of Missouri. Students from both universities team up and work on a campaign project together for an international agency in Hong Kong. In early summer in 2018, around 10 students from the University of Missouri partnered up with 10 of our Public Relations and Advertising majors to collaborate on an ice-cream campaign project for McCann & Spencer Hong Kong’s client Nestlé.

All groups spent two weeks developing recommendations for their clients. Each group had to present their campaign plan ideas to Nestlé to select a winning group. The students’ dedication, commitment, enthusiasm and cooperation were impressive and outstanding. During the programme, students and faculty from the Department of Communication Studies brought their guests to M.C. Box, a fusion of the modern supermarket and the traditional wet market under Link Real Estate Investment Trust (Link REIT), to have a taste of the local culture.

film project and presented a screening at Emerson College and Hunter College, featuring short films on the theme of “Home”, followed by a discussion.

A delegation from the Academy of Film went to the United States over Easter in 2018 and visited two renowned film schools in the United States, the Department of Visual Arts of Emerson College and Hunter College of the City University of New York. Students from all three schools collaborated on a film project and presented a screening at Emerson College and Hunter College, featuring short films on the theme of “Home”, followed by a discussion.

Displayed films covered various genres including fiction, documentary, experimental and animation. Students from Hong Kong and the United States exchanged views on numerous topics, such as culture, living environment and sense of identity. The project was fruitful in fostering lively interactions among students from culturally diverse backgrounds.

The delegation also visited another top film school, Tisch School of the Arts of New York University, Harvard University and a number of art museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the Museum of Modern Arts, to better understand the creative arts in that area and the local culture.

Emerson College and Hunter College made their return visits to HKBU this April and September respectively for the “Home” Project screening presented by the Academy of Film. During the visit, Professor Martin Lucas from Hunter College delivered a talk titled “Documentary and the Traumatized Subject: toward a new ethics”, sharing his experiences as a documentarian making films about topics including the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. He suggested how the part played by disaster testimony and the witness needs to be re-examined for the construction of a valid ethical film practice.