“Transformative Curriculums:

Chinese General Education

and the Liberal Arts”

Dr. Ivette Vargas-O’Bryan Austin College (USA)

General Education and University Curriculum Reform:

An International Conference in Hong Kong

City University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong SAR, China

June 14, 2012

“[E]ven the Chinese

government is sensitive to

this fact that in order to

move from a developing

to a developed economy,

they need innovation.

They need to satisfy

employers who are saying

they need more flexibility,

more interdisciplinary

savvy.”

“The Liberal Arts Come to

China,” Chronicle of

Higher Education,

February 6, 2012

Liberal Arts College Case Study

Shèng Yuēhàn Dàxué

Fujen Liberal Arts

Program 2013

Educational Philosophy at UIC

Whole Person Education (experiential,

emotional, voluntary work…)

Four Point Education Model

unites resources of college, students, parents and

society to deliver holistic education programs

Global outlook and Mentor caring

programmes

Academics

Business Management

Humanities and Social Sciences

Science and Technology

Language Centre

General Education

Research Centres

General Education General Education provides the foundation of a well-rounded

university education and promotes Whole Person Excellence

through exposure to a range of transferable skills, guiding principles,

and attitudes that all students need in their future professional and

personal lives. Students construct a deeper understanding of the

world around them by making connections at personal, societal and

historical levels.

General Education subjects promote the ability to: Communicate

effectively in English and Chinese; Access and manage complex

information and problems using technologically appropriate means;

Use mathematical reasoning to address problems in everyday life;

Pursue an active and healthy lifestyle; Use historical and cultural

perspectives to gain insight into contemporary issues; Apply various

value systems to decision-making in personal, professional, and

social situations; Make connections among a variety of disciplines

to gain insight into contemporary personal, professional, and

community situations.

Clashing Hybridity

Homi Bhabha’s The Location of

Culture (1994)

A boundary is not that at which

something stops but, as the

Greeks recognized, the

boundary is that from which

something begins its presencing.

Martin Heidegger, “Building,

dwelling, thinking”

Carnegie Classification of Institutions of

Higher Education

Case Study as Hybrid Model

Promotion:

Liberal Arts Education Values & Structure

(mostly) Western Values

Chinese Values

Operation:

Chinese test-based, vocation-driven,

bureaucratic model

Grading Rubric

The Grading Rubric (semester 1, 2009)

A (equivalent to at least 80 marks out of

100)

0-10% Students could get this

grade

A+B 40-65% Students could get this

grade

C+D No % limit

F (Students with a score below 30% in the

Final Examination will not be allowed to sit

for the Supplementary Examination)

To be decided by each Examiner

(refer to table 3 below)

The Grading Rubric (as of spring, semester 2, 2010 to now, 2010-2011)

A , A- (‘A’ should be equivalent to at least 80

marks out of 100)

0-10% Students could get this grade

B+ 0-15% Students could get this grade

A, A-, B+, B and B- 25%-60% could get this grade

C+, C, C- and D No % limit

F (Students with a score below 30% in the Final

Examination will not be allowed to sit for the

Supplementary Examination)

To be decided by each Examiner

(refer to table 3 below)

Centre for the Humanities and Medicine

(University of Hong Kong and Li Kha

Shing Faculty of Medicine)

Centre on Behavioral Health, the

University of Hong Kong

Asia Society