Page 14 - FSTE A5 Handbook

General Education Practices in Hong Kong
Executive summary

Higher education in Hong Kong has undergone major changes since the turn of the century.
With the introduction of the 3+3+4 education reform (EMB, 2004), curriculum space has been
created for a substantial General Education (GE) component in undergraduate (UG) studies
commencing from the 2012/3 academic year onwards. As a result, the eight University Grants
Committee (UGC)-funded universities have entered an intriguing discourse on what constitutes
GE in degree studies and how to have its teaching and learning activities orchestrated for
attaining the desirable attributes of their prospective graduates (Xing, Ng & Cheng, 2013).
On the other hand, there are also increased opportunities for sub-degree holders to continue
their studies at degree level. As a common component in both sub-degree and degree studies,
GE brings about issues on articulation and deserves attention as to its impact on students’
learning experience.
With the intention of understanding the current practices of GE in both UGC-funded and self-
financed institutions for insights into better articulation arrangements for sub-degree holders
who compete for the senior-year intake places, this publication aims to provide a depiction and
analysis of the articulation process and challenges that we experienced. The key source of data
used in this book are extracted from the study conducted by the Research Team of “Towards
a Sub-degree General Education Framework – Facilitating Credit Recognition and Transfer”,
which includes review of overseas policies regarding GE and related practices, interviews with
heads of GE of the eight UGC-funded universities, focus group interviews with senior year
entrants and two online surveys of the Associate Degree (AD)/Higher Diploma (HD) graduates
carried out in 2014/15 and 2015/16 respectively.
There are six chapters in the book. Chapter one provides a background of GE as an integral
part of UG studies in HK, while chapter two focuses on GE as a common core requirement at
the eight UGC-funded universities and an in-depth discussion on the models adopted for GE
delivery in the eight UGC-funded universities. All eight universities aimed at the same goal of
preparing students to be diversified, well-rounded, and capable of taking on the challenges
st
of the 21 century, but each institution planned differently as to how best to achieve these
aims. Chapter three describes the GE Curricula in the local Community College Sector (CCS).
Currently, we do not have a unified way of recognizing GE credits of an AD/HD programme,
which is accounted for by the variations in the GE structures among colleges in the CCS and
among the universities. As a result, challenges are imposed when AD/HD students seek
articulation to degree programmes. Possible facilitative factors for credit transfer of GE are
discussed in chapter four, which focuses on credit transfer practices for senior year admission.
This chapter highlights the importance of closer collaboration between the sub-degree sector
and the UGC counterparts as a success factor for smooth articulation for senior year entrants
in terms of recognising students and supporting learning in GE in their sub-degree studies.
Various mechanisms on credit transfer at the course and block levels are illustrated. Good
practice starts with curricular design and recommendations that focus on transparency
and system facilitation are elaborated. Chapter five reveals AD/HD graduates’ articulation

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