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Abstract. This study examined whether international exchange programs should continue to be treated as the core experiential learning activity in business study programs in universities in Hong Kong. We proposed that students' preferences, their career orientations as well as the potential learning outcomes of the activity be treated as the determinants. The study identified several benefits, in addition to the "well understood" benefits of foreign language proficiency and cultural awareness. We found that the self-directed learning skill, a competency crucial for students when pursuing global careers or lifelong learning, could be cultivated more effectively through such experiential learning activities as international exchange programs and local internships rather than traditional classroom teaching approaches. Interestingly, the findings showed that both international exchange programs and local internships could foster this critical competency. Considering that local internships are much more affordable to most students, the findings warrant attention for decision making of "out-of-classroom" programs in curricula design.
Keywords: international exchange program, internship, self-directed learning, and curriculum development.
1. Introduction
Under the increasing influence of globalization, technological advancement as well as the changing world order, the effects on skill and knowledge obsoleteness have been and continue to be astonishing. For business educators, students and other individuals alike, to conceive of the world that we will be living in in ten year's time, conjures up a picture quite different from what we are used to now in terms of what to teach and learn, where we work, how we work, what technologies we will use to communicate with, and what kind of skills and knowledge we will need to stay employable.
In order to equip students with adequate competencies for coping with the constantly changing requirements, Hong Kong universities have been attempting to modernize their teaching and developmental approaches since the beginning of the last decade. In fact, many education and learning researchers, such as Baker & Brown (1984), Boekaerts (1997, 1999), Furlong (2008) and Muir (2001), have proposed that while the traditional teaching approaches such as lectures, tutorials, discussion boards and the like are valuable, other types of experiential learning activities are also needed to cater for the different learning styles and developmental needs of students, and to ensure their future competitiveness and employability.
Among the various experiential...