More than 20 international students clad in different national costumes and folk dresses paraded down the catwalk at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) today (Friday) to celebrate the university's cultural diversity. The occasion was a multinational fashion show named "UST in Style".
These international students under The Swire International Young Fellows Programme joined hands with local and exchange students to form six teams, each featuring the fashion of one cultural region, and competing against each other for the awards for "Best Model", "Best Presentation", and "Overall Championship".
The teams featured the fashion and culture of China, East Asia, South Asia, the Philippines, Scandinavia, and Europe. They comprised students from Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mainland China, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, UK and Chile.
The fashion show integrates catwalk with a range of cultural performances, including music, dance, comedy, rap, and acrobatics.
HKUST President Paul Chu served on the panel of judges, alongside Swire Properties Director and General Manager Mr Stephan Spurr, fashion designer Ms Pauline Cheung and a student representative.
"As the HKUST student community becomes increasingly internationalized, we are pleased to see a corresponding growth in cultural diversity. The fashion show today reflects the creativity of our international students and their eagerness to add color and vitality to campus life," said President Chu.
The annual intake of international undergraduate students at HKUST has been increasing significantly in the past few years, from 25 in 2006 and 39 in 2007 to 54 in 2008. The number of undergraduate applications from overseas in these three years were 100, 144 and 264 respectively.
Since 2005, The Swire Group Charitable Trust has been supporting HKUST in recruiting brilliant students from different countries through The Swire International Young Fellows Programme, which is the most prestigious award program for international students at HKUST.
"We are thankful to The Swire Group Charitable Trust for their contribution to HKUST in bringing in international students of the highest caliber through the Swire International Young Fellows Programme," President Chu added.
For media enquiries, please feel free to contact :
Ross Lai
Tel: 2358 6306 / 9103 2928
Email: rosslai@ust.hk
Donna Wong
Tel: 2358 6317
Email: donnaw@ust.hk
