Final-year Marketing (MKT) students at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) were honoured at an awards presentation ceremony today (1 June) for the outstanding marketing consultancy projects that they have developed for several renowned local corporations.

The participating companies in the marketing consultancy project include the CASH Group; KOSE (Hong Kong) Co. Ltd;

; One Media Group and Yazhou Zhoukan (Member of Ming Pao Group); South China Morning Post Publishers Limited; TCL Overseas Marketing Ltd; and The Prudential Assurance Co. Ltd. There were 136 students from the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in MKT involved in the project. They formed 21 teams to provide consultancy services for the seven participating corporations from January to April this year.

In his welcoming address, Professor Zhou Nan, Head of MKT, said MKT courses equipped students with professional knowledge and skills that helped develop the students’ creativity. The marketing consultancy project provides

an opportunity for students to apply what they have learned at university to solve problems in real-life situations. “We work closely with corporations in Hong Kong and on the mainland to help students gain practical experience in, and broaden their views about, developing consultancy projects. The cooperating companies have praised our students for their performance, demonstrating that CityU, through its professional education, has nurtured high-quality students for industry,” Professor Zhou said.

Introduced by MKT in 1995, the marketing consultancy project has provided services for over 60 corporations. Mr Alex Tham, Programme Leader of the BBA in MKT said: “The programme emphasizes learning through real-life experience and aims to provide a suitable environment for student-centred and active learning.”

Participating students said the project was challenging. “Applying theory to practice was not as easy as we thought,” said Liu Kam-ping, a student representative. “But the project has given us a lot of practical experience, greatly enhanced our communication and interpersonal skills, and laid a good foundation for our future career.”

There was a concurrent ceremony for the Active Learner Awards that were

presented to Year 1 and Year 3 MKT students heavily involved in extra-curricular activities.

At the ceremony, Active Learner Awards were presented to students who submitted as part of their extra-learning activities a range of reports and reflections on academic journals, TV and radio programmes and business leader seminars. The aim of the Awards is to enhance students' knowledge and their analytic and writing skills. Winners included Kwok Shun-hei and Lee King-lai who together submitted more than 100 reports. Shun-hei submitted 72 written reflections on TV and radio programmes, while King-lai handed in 27 reports on the Harvard Business Review.

The two students both agreed that the scheme had enhanced their awareness of current affairs and helped developed their multi-dimensional critical thinking skills, a useful asset for their future careers in marketing.

Another programme in MKT, the BBA in China Business, offers consultancy services to corporations on the mainland. Since 1998, 13 corporations have taken part and 40 final-year students of BBA in China Business traveled between Hong Kong and Shenzhen from January to April to offer consultancy services to Shenzhen Xiaomeisha Sea World. They applied what they have learnt and conducted market research.