Travel comes in many guises nowadays. With the plethora of online reading, audio and video content available at our fingertips, via our phones, it is extremely easy to change location without really travelling at all, remaining in our own social, cultural and linguistic bubble.

EdUHK’s Global Lens initiative overcomes geographical restraints to learning, by bringing issues from around the world to the classroom. It broadens students’ horizons, enabling them to explore global and cross-cultural topics, so they may become global citizens with an awareness of cultures and environments, and the issues the world faces today.

In the 2024-25 academic year, the University’s Student Affairs Office has held 14 webinars and workshops to date, engaging 744 students in total. Year four Bachelor of Education (Honours) (Chinese Language) student Li Shuairui says that attending the webinars has been an enlightening experience that has broadened his perspective on the challenges faced in global development. “They have reminded me of the power of cross-cultural dialogue in fostering empathy and innovative problem-solving. I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to engage with such thought-provoking content,” he says.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) form the backbone of the students’ development path. Workshops and webinars in the 2024-25 academic year, for example, cover topics including redevelopment in the South Korean city of Busan and youth employment in South Africa. A workshop was held on the impact of climate change and local cultures on the coffee ecosystem. “The workshop enriched my understanding of coffee by providing valuable insights into global coffee bean cultivation practices reflecting SDG 12 — Responsible Consumption and Production,” says Lee Ka-ka, who is in year three of the Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) in Psychology programme. “It also highlighted the current state of the coffee industry in Hong Kong, emphasising the importance of sustainable practices within local contexts,” she adds.

Charles Chan Chi-yin, Assistant Director of Student Affairs and the person in charge of Global Lens, sees the initiative as empowering students to take a step beyond their local perspectives. “They are engaged with pressing global issues to foster cross-cultural understanding and sustainable thinking,” he explains. “Through webinars and interactive sessions, we bring the world to our students, enabling them to explore biodiversity, urban development, and social issues in ways that resonate deeply with their role as global change-makers,” he adds.