Hong Kong students don’t have to be doctors – they should pursue careers that matter to them

Debbie Leung says that too many Hong Kong families are pushing their kids into the medical field, and too many ‘bright’ students are majoring in medicine only because that’s what they’ve been told to do

Reading Time:3 minutes

Koby Ko (left) and Bee Chow are Open University of Hong Kong students studying creative advertising and media design. University students in Hong Kong have numerous majors to choose from that can be of social benefit. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 1:50pm, 2 Feb 2018Updated: 1:50pm, 2 Feb 2018

It’s that time of year when relatives gather around the table and converse. During these Lunar New Year greetings in my youth, I’d always be bombarded with these questions: “How’s it going with your studies? Are you one of the top students”? “What do you want to study in university”? “Are you thinking of studying medicine at the University of Hong Kong”?

In my final year of high school, I sent my family into a tailspin with one simple, short response: “No, I’m not studying medicine at HKU. I’m actually going to study in the States”.

My mum always told me that, when I grew up, I should be a doctor. When I asked why, she’d say, “Because that’s what elite students become. And doctors save lives.”

To my mum, a high-school dropout, studying medicine is the most secure path to success. I thought so too until I went to my first overseas university admissions talk and realised my passions lie elsewhere – in environmental science and sociology.

Only when I received my university admissions letters did I open up to my mum: “I’m not going to study medicine; I actually don’t want to be a doctor. In fact, I still don’t know what I want to be, which is why I want to study in the States, given its liberal arts education.”

That I chose not to study medicine is a sign, some of my relatives believe, that I’m not smart enough. But it’s simply not my passion.

In Hong Kong, certain occupations shine as if divine. When the time comes for students to select electives for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination, the most popular subjects tend to be biology, chemistry, physics and economics. Admissions scores for medicine at HKU and Chinese University are often among the highest – an indication of its prestige in a system where exam scores determine almost everything. On the most recent HKDSE examination, five out of the top six scorers chose medicine, with the sixth opting for dentistry.