Ambassador Spotlight Akihiro Cheng (Malaysia)
Private banker Akihiro Cheng is a man of planning and rational decisions and that pays off. At arrival, Belgium felt alien and rather distant. On the flipside, he also discovered the beauty of having the freedom to set your own agenda. Since that requires flexibility, persistence, and - of course - planning, he is more than happy to help prospective students to decide whether they are up to the challenge.
“I now work as a private banker for HSBC in Hong Kong, a global bank. I am a wealth manager for high-net-worth people. I manage their wealth and help them to plan for their wealth goals, be it through their businesses or investments. It is hard to compress what I do in a few sentences, but it is a good learning experience. My job is offering me a holistic package: great pay, great hours, great colleagues. The work is also interesting since clients are very demanding.”
“Without my degree from KU Leuven, I don’t think I would have been chosen for this program at HSBC as it is very competitive. From a financial perspective, my education at KU Leuven was a great investment given the affordable fees.”
“I had a very systematic approach to find a good university: making a list of countries in Western Europe, finding the top three universities, comparing prices and rankings. After sorting that out KU Leuven in Belgium came up. To be fair, I did not even know Belgium existed. When I saw the flag, I thought it was Germany's! I was clueless. Anyhow, I lived in Belgium from 2016 to 2020 and successfully completed my bachelor's and my master’s degree. I applied for the Business Administration programme since in 2016, it was one of the few bachelors that were taught in English. Luckily my personal interest was in business.”
SPANISH OMG
“My favourite courses were Philosophy, Psychology, and the Finance course by Professor Alain Praet. The professors who taught those subjects were simply great. The language courses on the other hand, were challenging, especially Spanish. I repeatedly failed, despite my best efforts. My average score is usually pretty good, but in the second year my grades dropped because I practically gave up on studying anything else but Spanish, trying to pass! I also learned Dutch and managed to pass that course. Evidently, my knowledge of English, which is also a Germanic language, helped. For Spanish however, I had no basis to start from. I do understand the appeal of having foreign language courses as a requirement in a business programme, but to make it compulsory to reach a conversational level in three years, can be very difficult for people from outside Europe. I really insisted on addressing that with the university because I feared that I would not be able to graduate and after many conversations, they managed to change that.”
€ 500 NOTES
“At the start of the Business Administration programme, I was thinking of going into marketing. But when I got an internship at HSCB in my third year I figured that I should choose a finance-related master instead. And now I have been working for HSBC in Hongkong for three years. I obtained my master’s degree in July 2020 and arrived in Hong Kong in August, the year that COVID hit. Hong Kong had some of the strictest COVID restrictions, so when I joined the bank in 2020, life was challenging, and social life was difficult. I hardly could meet my new colleagues, which is as dreadful as it sounds, but it is what it is. My arrival in Belgium was not a walk in the park either but adversity builds character.”
“When I came to Belgium in 2016, a lot of things felt alien. A funny example: in Malaysia money is just money, but in Belgium, one does not use big denominations in cash. I was unaware of that, so I brought the largest banknotes, because they are easy to store. After landing in Zaventem airport and travelling to Brussels, I was hungry and thirsty, so I wanted to buy a sandwich and a drink at a Carrefour supermarket with a €500 note. They did not have change for that! I was like: what do you mean? This is a supermarket not some random little shop … That was the first time in my life I have been rejected to pay for something because my money was too big.”
“The thing is, you need to be independent when you study at KU Leuven: take responsibility and organise things by yourself.”
SLOW TO WARM UP
“In Brussels I crashed in a youth hostel for two weeks while I waited for my student accommodation to finalise via BRIK. There are more university owned-student accommodations and services in Leuven than in Brussels, so at arrival I felt like I was on my own. Luckily, I am flexible and a good planner too. So, my advice if you want to study at KU Leuven: plan well, plan ahead and plan compulsively, so you create room to tackle unexpected events. Also, be patient with Belgian bureaucracy, especially if you come from Singapore or Hong Kong, where the pace of life is a lot faster. Things can be a bit slow in Belgium. Tone down your expectations!“
“The language was a big thing as well. Not everyone spoke English, and those who did were sometimes hard to understand. But that is part of the whole diversity exposure. Evidently, life in Belgium is very different from Malaysia. Different countries simply have different styles. That is why you move in the first place, isn’t it? But to be honest, I did not find Belgium very welcoming at first. It is a cultural thing. Being part of Northwestern Europe, Belgians are slow to warm up, but once they do, they are very friendly. They are like a big pot of water which takes time to cook. Once it is cooking, it will last a long time. When it comes to university life, I was lucky to become part of a small group of close friends, a pleasant mix of international and local people. I spent a lot of time with others as well. Even now, some of my close friends are Belgians whom I met back at university. That is cool.”
BELGIAN BEERS ARE BEST
“And to confirm a stereotype: Belgium’s beer collection is without a doubt the best I have ever tasted. Three years after my return I still love Belgian beers and I actively convert my fellow Hong Kong friends. In addition, I really appreciated the level of medical care in Belgium. It is there when you need it, even for foreigners and service levels are great. Compared to Hong Kong, things are a lot cheaper as well, so in the end it is a good place to be.”
“I became an ambassador for the faculty for two reasons. Firstly, I want to give back to this university because without it, I would not be where I am today, I would not have met the people that I have met in Belgium, and I would not have those memories. Secondly, I want to help other foreign students to avoid making the mistakes that I did when I first came. So, I am here to talk to prospective students of KU Leuven, because it is a great school with its own pros and cons and I can help them to make informed decisions.”
TAKE YOUR RESPONSIBILITY
“The thing is, you need to be independent when you study at KU Leuven: take responsibility and organise things by yourself. KU Leuven teaches on a lecture-based approach. Every year we had one or more practical courses as well, especially as of the third year, but the bulk of the curriculum is lecture-based. It is also up to you whether you attend classes or not and after class you can do your own thing.”
“In Commonwealth countries exams in high school are scheduled every quarter and you have many tests in between as well. So, students get the practice of preparing. In Belgium however, you have more freedom because you only have exams twice a year, and in university they usually do not even take attendance. I really loved that freedom, but the sword cuts both ways.”
“The most important tip is study hard. Do not underestimate the difficulty of KU Leuven’s courses.”
ENJOY YOUR FREEDOM BUT WORK HARD
“On the upside, you have the time to do what you want. If you are a good planner, you can make excellent use of your time. Without good planning I could never have started the TEDx KU Leuven Brussels talks. I would not have had the time to do my internship, because I would have been busy studying for all my tests and quarterly exams. But I also believe my grades would not have been as good as they were. For subjects that I was already good at or where the teaching was not that great, I found it more efficient to prepare by myself with the course material in my own time instead of sitting through all classes. I attended like once every 2-3 weeks to make sure I knew the professor and did not miss out on anything major. The spare time was spent on more important things, such as studying Spanish (laughs).”
“The downside is that you really must be aware of your capabilities and the demand of the courses. You need the discipline to plan and work throughout the year. If you wait for the exam period, you are lost! The most important tip is study hard. Do not underestimate the difficulty of KU Leuven’s courses. I am intelligent but still studied hard. I vividly remember I did not expect the math to be so difficult, so I put in an extra effort. In my second year a new student arrived in my dorm, and she was just partying and having fun. I repeatedly warned her: if you do not study every day, you will be surprised by your results. But she replied she was fine, the best in her high school. But so was I! Anyway, she failed math and other subjects, for the first time in her life… I believe not many universities, especially in Asia or Commonwealth countries or even the US, offer the freedom that you find here. That is a beautiful thing, but it also calls for hard work and thorough planning.”
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