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Provosts and Vice Presidents from nine top universities in China (called the ’C9’ on the Mainland) have joined HKU at a symposium to examine issues and concerns about undergraduate education in the midst of change.
Hong Kong will switch to a four-year undergraduate curriculum in 2012 from three years at present, while the Mainland has released a blueprint for higher education development from 2010–2020.
The symposium, entitled ’Re-envisioning Undergraduate Education’ and hosted by HKU in September, aimed to identify common issues among the universities and explore ways to better prepare undergraduate students to take on the challenges of the 21st century.
The participants revisited the undergraduate curriculum, looking at such things as desired graduate attributes (in terms of both professional and disciplinary competence and personal qualities), general education or common core, curriculum structure and teaching quality and development.
They also considered strategies for improving teaching and learning, covering such topics as student evaluation of teaching, pedagogical evaluation, and student learning experiences.
The participants lauded this first ever attempt to bring together the senior management of ten top Chinese universities to deliberate on teaching and learning issues. They enthused about the future prospect of this platform for collaboration and have agreed to work together on four areas: general education/the Common Core curriculum, student evaluation of teaching, a student learning experience survey, and pedagogical innovations. Several universities have offered to host the next symposium to be held in a year’s time. |
