Bulletin No. 2, 2015

The UGE team and the University’s Information and Technology Services Centre jointly develop two mobile apps—DiaNable and Daimon—to guide students through the study of classical literature. The apps provide text annotations to aid reading, and sectional quizzes to ensure correct comprehension of the texts. To add fun, students can listen to proper pronunciations of terms in Greek, French and Latin recorded by teachers who are language experts. about serious topics and acquire necessary knowledge they wouldn’t otherwise learn due to passiveness. Students might have been reluctant to learn knowledge outside their main subjects initially, but according to comparisons of before- and after-course surveys, both arts students’ interest in science and science students’ interest in the arts have grown. They value the chance to study classics and consider it mind-opening. So far, over 20,000 students have enrolled in the programme. The full-time teaching team has been expanded from an initial few to 27. The recent Quality Audit Report of CUHK released by the Quality Assurance Council of the University Grants Committee also commended the quality of the programme. The GEF Programme offers an important first step to university education. It aims to prepare students to become intellectuals with insight by encouraging them to establish a reading routine, conduct in-depth investigations and debate on serious topics. It can be considered a manifestation of both the mission of CUHK and the ultimate goal of general education—as the primary objective of general education is to broaden students’ horizons, while the mission of CUHK is to combine tradition with modernity, and bring together China and the West. In the digital age when people can cut and paste from the Internet whenever they like, GEF requires students to give up second- or third- hand information and to read the classics. On the reading list are excerpts from Zhuangzi , the Koran , Plato’s Symposium , Darwin’s The Origin of Species , and Joseph Needham’s Science and Civilization of China . The rigorously articulated and intensively paced curriculum poses great challenges to both teaching and learning. Dr. Wong Wing-hung , Associate Director of University General Education, said, ‘We had hoped to offer in this compulsory programme something different from secondary school Liberal Studies, and with a breadth and depth that would inspire students from different disciplines who have varying interests and abilities. We were aware that students might find it too difficult and demanding, but the response turned out to be gratifying.’ Since its full implementation in 2012, the GEF has received favourable comments in freshmen evaluations. According to a survey conducted by the University’s Centre for Learning Enhancement and Research, freshmen feedback is generally positive. Comments like ‘too many readings’, ‘too difficult’ constantly show up. But the students are ‘happy to be pushed’, to be pressed to think International Recognition for GE Foundation Programme 25