Final-year marketing students from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) were honoured at an awards presentation ceremony on 31 May for the quality of the consultancy projects that they designed for several renowned local and multinational corporations.

The corporations are California Red Limited; eBay International Hong Kong Limited; FORTRESS; KOSé (Hong Kong) Company Limited; Lee Kum Kee (Hong Kong) Limited; The Prudential Assurance Company Limited; and South China Morning Post Publishers Limited.

Representatives from the corporations said the proposals were innovative and practical and enhanced the business development of their companies. They also noted the students’ dedication and high-level analytical skills.

Altogether 97 final-year students from the Department of Marketing formed 15 teams to provide professional consultancy services to the seven corporations from January to April this year. At the awards presentation ceremony, an overall champion team was honoured by each company.

The projects demonstrate that CityU not only emphasizes professional

education but also helps students to put theories into practice.

In the welcoming speech, Mr Arthur Chan Man, Chairman of Departmental Advisory Committee in the Department of Marketing, said that the most important attributes the students possessed were their earnest working attitude and passion at their work. “These are particularly essential and crucial for fresh graduates. I believe they could help the students to overcome every obstacle they may encounter in the future career,” said Mr Chan.

Professor Zhou Nan, Head of the Department of Marketing, added that CityU’s marketing courses equipped students with professional knowledge and skills that helped to develop creativity.

“The participating companies have praised our students for their performances, demonstrating that CityU, through its professional education, has nurtured high-quality students for industry,” Professor Zhou said. He also advised students by quoting Lao Zi, “To deal with difficult tasks in the world, you need to start from dealing with easy tasks. To accomplish large things in the world, you need to pay attention to details.”

The projects offered students hands-on experience and an opportunity to sample the real business world, helping to develop the participants’ interpersonal and problem solving skills. “Teamwork is definitely one of the principles that we have learnt in these projects,” said Cherry Yiu Pui-suen, one of the participants.

Mr Alex Tham Koy-siong, the programme leader of the Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons) Marketing programme, has been working on the Student Marketing Consultancy Project since 1995. He said that this approach enhanced closer collaborations between the University and the business sector.

The Department of Marketing also presented the Outstanding Active Learner Awards at the ceremony which aimed at enhancing students’ analytic and writing skills. The awards went to those students who submitted a range of self-initiated work, such as reports on academic journals, TV programmes and business leader seminars, in addition to doing regular coursework. This year 10 students were given Outstanding Active Learner Awards and 80 students received Active Learner Awards.