The list of things wrong with the hall culture, or as the title suggests the lack of it, is quite long and can take years to discuss in depth. So in order to help all of you finish reading this article before you graduate, we’re going to sum it up and discuss its potential root cause(s) and solutions(which might never be implemented, but still). But before we dive into the sea of problems, halls are separated into different categories at HKU and a brief description of  these might help understand the issues in a more comprehensive manner.
 

Firstly, there are the residential halls which, for whoever’s familiar with the names, include the likes of Lee Hysan Hall, RC Lee Hall, Morrison Hall etc. Then come the four residential colleges located in Kennedy Town. These are relatively new and have slightly better facilities compared to the residential halls. With that being said, the life at these halls is much harder and saying that they feel like military camps is an understatement, but more on that further. Lastly, there are the non residential halls which are essentially apartment complexes under HKU supervision. These have a much more relaxed lifestyle but don’t have the particular identity that you might expect from a hall and are suitable for people who don’t want to get involved in a lot of hall activities. We specifically left out St. John’s as it cannot be put into the same categories as the rest of the halls and will discuss more on it later. 
 

Let’s begin at the very top. Hall admissions criteria at HKU is extremely flawed, vague and follows guidelines that might be outdated even for recruitment at the time of WWI, though the upside here is you won’t be dead or even brutally injured by the end of it unlike WWI. Each hall at the University has a fixed quota for different types of students, namely, locals, Mainlanders and non locals. On paper this sounds like a great idea to promote diversity, but there’s a catch. All of these quotas are static, which means that in case a few places at a hall that were under the local students’ quota are empty, with no current local applicants for the ongoing/upcoming residential year, even if there are a few non locals or Mainlanders who don’t have any places in any of the halls and were to apply for these vacancies, they would surely be rejected under the rule that the places belong to local students. This is just the weirdest thing we’ve ever come across or even heard of. Keeping rooms empty rather than giving them to students who need it sounds like a better idea to the halls which just makes you question their rationality and this is when you begin contemplating your life decisions.
 

 Another thing that’s equally if not more concerning than this is that the quota for locals, non locals and Mainlanders is approximately the same when considering the big picture. This leads to a horrible situation, where locals that have their own homes in Hong Kong and pay a fourth of the tuition fee non locals and Mainlanders pay, live in much cheaper halls, whereas non locals or Mainlanders, who’re the ones that actually need these places given that they’re far away from home, have to look outside for much more expensive houses elsewhere. This just doesn’t look like a great concept no matter what point of view you choose.The only good thing about hall rules is that non locals and Mainlanders are guaranteed an HKU housing during their first year.
 

One could argue in favour of this by stating the fact that the bursary scheme exists, but from personal experience that bursary takes unto a year to be credited to you. Most students live on budgets and having to wait a year or so to get that money back is nothing less than a nightmare. On the brighter side you do get to experience Hong Kong in a truer sense which will make your time in Hong Kong much more fun and fruitful and help you connect with the people and culture of Hong Kong on a deeper level. 

 

Now for a moment let's assume you were to get into one of the halls and expect it to be uphill from here on out. You might want to reconsider that thought. Issues facing each hall differ slightly from others and can lead to varied types of experiences based on which hall you get into. Lets begin talking about the most relaxed hall type, which consist of the non residential halls. The only thing you have to worry about here is to not do something extremely wrong that might lead to your expulsion from the hall. As long as you maintain good behaviour and high hygiene standards, you’re good and can expect readmission the following year. Most people enjoy the lifestyle in these halls and it provides great opportunities implicitly if not explicitly to get to know new people and make bonds that will at least last a few years if not forever.

 

Next up, in the frustration level hierarchical order, are the residential halls. Most of these have a relaxed readmission criteria which includes moderate levels of participation in hall activities, high attendance in high table dinner(currently suspended due to the pandemic), good behaviour and hygiene standards. The issue in these halls are slightly tangential to issues faced by other halls. Most of these halls are local student dominated and do not necessarily encourage participation from non cantonese speaking students. Before you begin to punch your laptop screen and begin looking for me, hear me out. Non locals are seen as only the last resort to any opportunity be it an organising team or sports team. Though the halls represent a very diverse group of people, at least in numbers, they seldom live up to the high or even rational expectations of students that don’t speak or understand Cantonese. This behaviour and attitude towards non locals is sure to make anybody angry and having to deal with such indifference far away from home makes it even worse. This does not mean each and every individual who lives in these halls must and should be labelled as not inclusive. There are a lot of cases that prove otherwise and are actually very keen on spending time with international students. I mentioned the above issue only because that’s the case with the majority and is also the opinion held by most non local students. 

 

Moving on, let’s discuss the residential colleges. They consist of the four colleges namely Shun Hing College, Chi Sun College, Lap Chee College and New College, which are collectively called the Jockey Club Student Village 3. These are by far the most hyped up residential complexes that HKU has to offer. One of the hardest colleges to get into which don’t particularly live up to their expectations in terms of culture or diversification. People don’t even know if anyone’s living next door to them let alone getting to know those residents on a personal level. The life here is way too competitive and people participate in hall activities only for the purpose of readmission and not to get to know others or out of curiosity. The fact that the only justified purpose of any of the hall activities is readmission, shadows their real purpose which is for residents to bond with each other. Infrastructure , on the other hand, is a whole different scenario. The rooms in these colleges are much bigger compared to what any other hall has to offer, falling only short of St John’s, but that’s a different beast altogether. The podium, common area, the lobby and every other aspect of these halls feels like a decent hotel, so if you’re particularly looking for that semi modern and classy aesthetic, this is the residential complex for you. 

 

Finally, let’s talk about the best hall(personal opinion)offered by HKU to its students and is more of an exception when compared to the other halls we’ve mentioned before. This is none other than the St. John’s College. It’s a completely different entity and is somewhat of a community in itself. The students that live in this hall have a seemingly patriotic view towards it and possess an opinion contrary to what other students hold of their own halls and rightly so. St. John’s represents in true sense what diversity should look like and provides a glimpse of what other halls could have been if the integration of students from different backgrounds was done as efficiently as done by St. John’s. Just to clarify, admission into St. John’s is no cake walk and is even one of the most difficult halls to get into. However, juxtaposing its admission criteria and procedure to other halls brings up one major difference. That is, that working hard to get into St. John’s is worth the effort and is even very rewarding. The amazing group of people you get to know, the amazing hall culture, proper integration of talent and hierarchy are few of the things that make St. John’s way too attractive. It even offers meals to students unlike any other, but this makes it quite expensive compared to other halls, not that we’re complaining whatsoever. 

 

So through this article we really want to express how most students aren’t using the potential opportunities halls have to offer fully, though many of these cases might not be out of choice. The situation, we feel, has begun to change slightly but gradually with the increase in the number of international students on campus each year. So we hope to see a complete 180 by the time we graduate.