A delegation of over 50 City University of Hong Kong (CityU) staff and students led by Professor Way Kuo, CityU President, visited Chiao Tung University (NCTU) in Hsinchu on 28 December for a series of sports exchanges including slow pitch softball.

The visit helped to further strengthen CityU–NCTU ties and enhance co-operation between the two institutions.
Sister universities CityU and NCTU have been working together since 2006 in various academic and research fields after signing a memorandum on academic exchanges and an agreement on student exchanges between the two sides.

The year 2017 marked the start of sports exchanges between the two partners, with teams from each side visiting the other’s campus for a series of games and matches.

This time around, CityU’s basketball, volleyball, table tennis, and softball teams participated in games and matches at NCTU, in addition to a special session on slow pitch softball  led by President Kuo.

 

President Kuo started playing softball as early as in 1993 while teaching and working as Head of the Department of Industrial Engineering at Texas A&M University in the US. 

When playing softball, he said, the batters must keenly focus their minds on the ball that comes hurtling towards them. “So you must practise very hard prior to a match, so that you always hit the ball with a nice stroke, no matter what angle it comes from.” 

President Kuo used the softball analogy to urge students to make the best use of their learning opportunities to ensure they are well-equipped for future development. 

The University is committed to running these exchange programmes to help broaden the students’ perspectives through contacts with other cultures, by encouraging them to leave their “comfort zones”, Dr Ron Kwok Chi-wai,  CityU's Dean of Students, explained.

The current visit to NCTU involves multi-faceted exchanges, said Dr Patrick Chan Ping-cheung, Associate Director of Student Development Services (SDS) of CityU. “Through these sports exchanges, staff and students of both universities will get to know one another better. Then we can go on to share insights about research, professional education and learning.”

Universities in Taiwan tend to have better PE and sports programmes than Hong Kong universities, Dr Chan added. But he said he was confident that CityU’s student athletes would improve their skills through exchanges with their Taiwanese peers.

 

In Hong Kong, CityU has been highly rated for its strong sports teams, having won the Grand Slam nine times in the annual sports meets organised by The University Sports Federation of Hong Kong.

Our CityU student athletes will also become more mature through exchanges with their peers of other universities, said Mr Denis Wan Chung-yin, Senior PE Officer of the SDS. “Some of our sports team leaders appeared shy and confused three years ago when new on the campus as freshmen, but they are different on this visit to NCTU. Now that they are more experienced, they have displayed fine leadership skills, as they feel duty-bound to help their teammates improve their skills and win glory for the University.”