Page 83 - FSTE A5 Handbook

Students are always concerned whether they will need to defer their study. The senior year
entry students have worked very hard to enable themselves to join the third year of the
programmes of study and would have a chance to graduate with their high school classmates
“on time”. An extension, even for a semester, is therefore a huge concern to them.

Concluding Remarks: Characteristics of Student Learning

The learning journey of students who go through the 2+2 structure of higher education is not
only of academic interest, but also of interest to many stakeholders such as the government,
employers, parents and teachers. No one would challenge the notion of “learning how to
learn” as a major goal of education, particularly in higher education. It is our expectation that
graduates from higher education should have the necessary competencies to sustain lifelong
learning. To this end, the students involved in our study have demonstrated the potential
for development in this direction. Lifelong learning must have an objective, however, be it
outcome-based or process-based. The views expressed by the students reported so far could
be perceived and subsequently interpreted as learning towards an explicit and measurable
outcome, i.e. higher grades from GE courses in sub-degree programmes and sustained interest
in some GE areas of their choice.

This may not be ideal for many scholars, particularly those who are very keen to promote
General Education as a means of developing the all-round attributes of students. Student
learning, in some cases, would be seen as driven too much by assessment and too much focus
on the GPA. To a large extent, however, it is simply a fact of life for students who study in the
sub-degree programmes. For the senior year programmes, although many students want to
choose courses of their interest, the reality is that they would give up if they find getting a
good mark from the selected course is too demanding.

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