Page 13 - FSTE A5 Handbook

Prefaceong
General Education Practices in Hong K
Preface

With the implementation of the New Academic Structure, General Education (GE) accounts
for 60% of an associate degree (AD) programme. Currently, different AD and Higher Diploma
(HD) programme providers have their own models of GE curriculum and associated intended
learning outcomes (ILOs). At the same time, at the degree level, there is also a range of
GE models and GE learning outcomes across universities where exemption and transfer
practices of GE units are quite different.
The publication of General Education Practices in Hong Kong: articulations across sub-degree
and degree studies is an important milestone of the project “Towards a Sub-degree General
Education (GE) Framework — Facilitating Credit Recognition and Transfer”. Undertaken by
Federation for Self-financing Tertiary Education (FSTE), the project was granted funding
under the Quality Enhancement Support Scheme of the Education Bureau from 2014 through
2017. It aimed at facilitating the sharing of good practices and achieving more effective
credit recognition and transfer arrangements between the sub-degree and degree sectors.
The book discusses the models adopted for GE delivery in the eight UGC-funded universities.
Through understanding the GE curricula in the local community college sector, we realised
that there was no unified way of recognising the GE credits of an AD/HD programme. What
we highlight at the end of the book are possible facilitative factors for the credit transfer of
GE, which focus on the practices for senior year admission as well as examples of AD/HD
graduates being admitted as senior year students.

The UGC-funded sector has also actively involved in the project. Each university planned
their GE courses differently to prepare students to be versatile, well-rounded, and capable
of taking on challenges for the 21st century. Through effective communication between the
sub-degree and degree sectors, there will be more opportunities to take sub-degree GE
further towards the goal of achieving smoother credit recognition by, and articulation to,
the degree sector.

By completing this project, we hope to provide a platform for enhancing the quality of GE
courses in the sub-degree sector in Hong Kong, with a view to customising GE courses to
fit into the degree programmes offered by their preferred universities, helping students
establish a clear goal for their sub-degree education, and providing a high quality learning
environment.

Dr Simon Leung
Project Convenor
GE Working Group

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