Graduation Ceremony 2012 – Principal’s Message to Graduates

Dear Graduates,

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the graduates. You have worked very hard and now you have completed your study. I know that in the past many years, you have had a great deal of support from your family, without which you would not have been able to achieve what you have now. I also know that your teachers have given you a lot of help in the past two years. They are among the best teachers I have come across, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them on your behalf. Thank you parents, and thank you teachers.

In the past two years we have given you not only training in your specialism, but also exposure to a variety of subjects that help broaden your horizons. We have also given you the training in communication, interpersonal, and numerical skills, and we tried to help you understand the importance of life-long learning. More importantly, we drew your attention to ethics. We believe that these are most important in preparing for further study or work. I hope you would continue to improve in these areas.

In the past two years as the College Principal, I came into contact with teachers and external assessors, many of whom are professors in Universities. I participated in your activities, and I know you much better now. I feel that you are a group of students who are most keen to learn and who are very well-behaved.

I also had the chance to meet many of those who did very well in their studies and received scholarships – in fact, I interviewed most of them. I learned from them first hand two keys to success. Although these may sound “Lo Sung Suei Tum”, I would still like to share these with you. The first is hard work. I believe I do not need to elaborate on this. The second key to success is making the right choice when it comes choice of subjects. Many of these scholarship recipients chose the wrong subjects in the A level, and as a result did not do well enough in the A level examination to enable them to get admission to a University In the CC they chose the subject they had genuine interest in and subsequently, they did very well in their examinations. This is a useful lesson for all of you: you should choose something you have passion for and for which you are good at – this is an important key for success. I would like to share with you one more key to success in your future career. Creativity is most important for success. Steve Jobs is a very good example. He is, we all agree, a particularly successful person because Apple products are all new inventions and are extremely popular. The creation of new knowledge is the key to the advancement of society and it is also a measure of your success.

The Community College was formed 13 years ago. If we include those graduates who joined the UGC funded Universities after the first year, we have around 48% articulating to the UGC funded Universities and 43% articulating to top-up and overseas Universities. We are now the most well known sub-degree provider in HK as reflected by student admissions and articulation to Universities. I hope you are proud of being associated with us. I hope after graduation you keep in touch with the College. Both HKU SPACE and CC have alumni associations and they organize meaningful activities on an ongoing basis. I urge you to join the alumni associations of both the College and HKU SPACE.

Once again, congratulations to the graduates.