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Programme

 

In 2024, HKU will once again team up with Common Purpose, a global leadership development organization that runs programmes all over the world to inspire and equip people to work across boundaries.

The next HKU-Common Purpose Leadership Development Programme will launch in June 2024. Come and experience the vibrant cities Kuala Lumpur and Hanoi, two of Asia’s fastest-growing cities!

Immerse yourself in the HKU Common Purpose Leadership Development program, a transformative journey that unites around 30 HKU students. This exceptional experience is designed to elevate your Cultural Intelligence and equip you with vital skills for excelling in cross-cultural teams while exploring a new city.

This initiative facilitates dynamic interactions among students and industry leaders, fostering profound insights and honing skills necessary to thrive in the evolving landscape of work.

The programme centred on five fundamental skills highly sought after by contemporary employers: Problem-Solving, Agility, Collaboration, Communication, and Resilience.

By actively engaging in authentic projects within organizations, you will have the invaluable opportunity to apply and refine these skills in real-world scenarios.

  • The programme will enable HKU students to:
  • Develop your cultural Intelligence (CQ) skills
  • Practise your inter-cultural and collaboration skills through partnerships
  • Explore organizational practices
  • Learn Critical skills that will set you on the right path to future success
  • Learn about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
  • Develop your ability to work in cross-cultural teams and environments\
  • Gain access to leading organizations across Kuala Lumpur and Hanoi through project execution

View past photos albums and videos by clicking on the links below:

Schedule at a Glance

StageDatesFormat
1

8 Apr – 3 May 2024

Cultural Intelligence Accelerator
Cultural Intelligence Accelerator is an experiential online asynchronous course designed to grow your Cultural Intelligence (CQ) – the ability to cross divides and thrive in multiple cultures as well as prepare you to work in global contexts and be better able to understand other cultures and suspend assumptions in unfamiliar environments—all crucial attributes needed to be successful in our workplace, societies and communities.

Asynchronous course
 

23 May 4:30-5:00 for Kuala Lumpur

24 May 4:30-5:00 for Hanoi

Pre-departure briefing
A chance to ask questions about your time in Kuala Lumpur and Hanoi followed by a 30-minute travel information session led by HKU and Common Purpose Staff.

Online via zoom
2

3 Jun – 5 Jun 2024

City Immersion
Convening as one group to understand our immersion city, KL and Hanoi

In person in Kuala Lumpur / Hanoi
3

6 Jun 2024

Collab
Gaining a better understanding of the workplaces in the city and practising your employability skills through creating partnerships

In person in Kuala Lumpur / Hanoi
4

7 Jun 2024

Meeting your organization attachment host

In-person in Kuala Lumpur / Hanoi
 

10 Jun – 27 Jun 2024

Organizational attachments: practising your employability skills in a real-world environment through an organization in the city

In-person in Kuala Lumpur / Hanoi
5

28 Jun 2024

Reflections and looking ahead

In-person in Kuala Lumpur / Hanoi
6

Sep 2024 (date to be confirmed)

Jamboree

Online via Zoom

Funding

Participants will be responsible for the airfare, insurance, visa and in-country costs. They will receive financial sponsorship (HK$5,000) from the Gallant Ho Experiential Learning Centre.

Who Can Apply?

LDP is designed primarily for undergraduate students any disciplines and year of study.

Role

You may choose to take part in the programme as a general participant or a student coordinator. Five students will be selected to serve as student coordinators, one for each group, to ensure effective communication and cooperation within the group. The selected students will receive an award to support their participation in LDP. The student coordinators are expected to undertake the following roles:

  • to create a warm and welcoming learning environment by acting as a peer mentor, role model, and leader
  • to ensure that groups maintain and uphold behaviours as expected by HKU
  • to ensure that the group stay in constant communication and keep in mind safety measures while travelling outside programme hours
  • to make timely communication with the Common Purpose staff team if there are any concerns on health, stress, programme related issues etc.

Application Process

The application process is quite extended because there has to be sufficient time first to select participants, second to enable all selected participants to apply for a tourist visa in the host destination, and third to allow all participants to make transportation arrangements. These are the major steps:

DateProcess
13 – 20 Mar 2024Application
25 – 27 Mar 2024Interviews (face-to-face or Zoom)
1st Week of Apr 2024Notification of application results
28 Mar – 12 Apr 2024Participants to submit signed “Notice of Acceptance” & commit to LDP.
May 2024Pre-departure briefing on logistics

For registration, please complete this online form.
For enquiries, please contact us at holdp@hku.hk.

Official Launch

March 15-16, 2019

Evening reception and full-day workshop with briefing on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and small group conversations with Hong Kong-based leaders who are from – or have extensive experience of – Bangalore/Manila/Shanghai/Yangon, to prepare for the immersion experience in June.

Recap on Past Events

Joined by some 100 participants including guest speakers who are leaders from different industries and sectors, mentors who are alumni of the University and participating students from HKU, the HKU-Common Purpose Leadership Development Programme 2017 Launch Event was successfully held during March 15-16, 2017.
Event Album
Event Album
Event Article
Event Article
Photo album
Event Video

E-learning Platform and Cultural Intelligence Online Module

May 2020

Cultural Intelligence – the leadership approach that underpins the programme; ‘Power Dynamic’ – the Common Purpose signature technique which empowers systematic mapping out of which organizations and individuals hold power and influence over whom and how.

Immersion

June 8 – 26, 2020

Project generation, development and implementation, framed around the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Regular contact with Mentors, and engagement with senior leaders and stakeholders from Aboitiz Foundation, Civil Service Commission, Pifzer Philippines Foundation, Shell, Manila Water Foundation, Asian Development Bank, Coca Cola Foundation Philippines, AC Energy Holdings. Details at http://commonpurpose.org/leadership/programmes/students/hku-leadership-programme/.

Jamboree at HKU

October 2019

Reflection and experience sharing.

About Common Purpose (http://commonpurpose.org/)
Founded in 1989, Common Purpose is a leadership development organization that specializes in cross-boundary leadership. It is runs programmes in over 70 cities worldwide, with over 4,000 participants becoming Common Purpose Alumni every year. Common Purpose leadership development programmes aim to inspire and equip participants to work across boundaries, enabling them to solve complex problems in organizations and in society.
Common Purpose’s extensive alumni network across the Asia Pacific region enables access at senior levels of organizations, large and small, across the public, private and NGO sectors.

Common Purpose partners with world-class universities and runs leadership programmes for their students, including the top 30 universities globally:
Harvard | Oxford | National University of Singapore | University of Nairobi | University of the Witwatersrand | University College London | IIT Bombay | New York University | King’s College London | Edinburgh | University of Chicago | IIM Bangalore | University of Johannesburg

Common Purpose partners with organizations in the field of student leadership, including:

Fulbright | AIESEC | National Youth Council of Singapore | All-China Youth Federation | China Youth Daily | Commonwealth Youth New Zealand