Introduction | Curricula | Teaching and Learning | Campus Life | Internationalisation | Community Service | Service-Learning

Liberal arts education at Lingnan University aims to instil a sense of civic duty in our students and to cultivate skills, competences and sensibilities that enable graduates to pursue their goals in a rapidly changing social, cultural and economic environment. Lingnan graduates will have breadth and depth of vision, the desire and capacity for public service, an awareness of the complexities that characterise enduring human dilemmas, and, accordingly, maturity of judgement. Excellent as leaders and employees, Lingnan graduates will be the beneficiaries of a multi-dimensional approach to learning. More specifically, the ideal Lingnan graduate will: 
 

• have strong oral and written language proficiency in both English and Chinese (Putonghua as well as Cantonese), together with excellent communication and interpersonal skills;
• be committed to involvement in and service to the community;
• have an international outlook and be able to understand problems from different cultural perspectives;
• have a secure grounding in his or her chosen academic field(s) and an awareness of possible cross-disciplinary applications;
• possess essential generic research-related skills, including knowledge of information technology;
• have strong analytic skills and a capacity for independent critical thinking;
• be imaginative and possess problem-solving capabilities;
• be capable of imaginative and sound planning;
• have excellent cooperative skills based on tolerance, integrity, civility and a sense of personal responsibility; and
• have both the capacity and the desire for life-long learning.

Curricula

Lingnan University offers full-time undergraduate programmes leading to honours degrees. These programmes are grouped under three categories, viz. Arts, Business and Social Sciences. To accomplish Lingnan’s mission of providing its students with an education in the liberal arts tradition, all undergraduate programmes feature a distinctive style of integrated and balanced curriculum. Apart from courses in the respective disciplines, the General Education Programme and Chinese and English languages are essential components in each curriculum.

To prepare for the implementation of the new four-year university system in 2012, the University has mapped out a 120-credit curriculum framework. This underlies the University’s commitment to broaden and enrich the scope of students’ learning. Under the new system, students normally have to take 33 credits of Core Curriculum courses, 18 credits of Chinese and English language courses, 48 credits of major courses and 21 credits of free elective courses. The Core Curriculum is made up of a Common Core with four required courses, namely Logic and Critical Thinking, Understanding Morality, World History and Civilizations and The Making of Hong Kong, and five clusters, namely Values, Cultures and Societies; Creativity and Innovation; Management and Society; Science, Technology and Society; and Humanities and the Arts. All students are required to take all four courses in the Common Core and seven courses from the five clusters, with at least one course from each cluster.

Faculty and departmental staff had actively engaged in reviewing their undergraduate curricula for implementation in the 4-year university system.  all of the curricula had been deliberated at the programme level and University level committees and finally approved by the Senate. 

Teaching and Learning

Lingnan adopts a student-oriented teaching and learning approach, and emphasises close faculty-student relationship. We stress interactive teaching and learning modes that mobilise students to reach for higher levels of intellectual discourse, analytical thinking and independent research capability. Likewise, we also adopt innovative teaching and learning approaches that include internships, overseas field trips, immersion language studies, directed research projects, cooperative learning and action learning.

Campus Life

Campus life, especially hostel life, is regarded as an essential part of a liberal arts education. With two-thirds of undergraduates living on campus, Lingnan has the highest residential rate of all universities in Hong Kong. By 2012/13, when the four-year university system comes into place, we aspire to a 100% residential rate for all students. The diverse student programmes organised by our hostels range from academic, cultural to sports, social and recreational activities, including the President’s Cup (Inter-hostel Sports Competitions), High Table Dinner, environmental protection programme, social services projects, swimming gala and singing contest. These valuable, out-of-class experiences provide an environment that is conducive to self-learning, while also enhancing students’ communication and social skills, as well as critical thinking abilities.

In 2001, Lingnan introduced an Integrated Learning Programme (ILP). Through a diverse range of courses, workshops and activities set outside the classroom, ILP strives to develop students’ potential, foster critical thinking and nurture their whole-person development. The Programme covers five core areas, namely Civic Education, Intellectual Development, Physical Education, Social and Emotional Development and Aesthetic Development.

The First Year Experience Programme (FYEP) was initiated in September 2009. It aims at fostering first year students to make a smooth transition from secondary school learning to university study, set goals at University, make the best use of the resources on campus, and pave way for their scholarly and professional achievements. The FYEP offers programmes in four main areas, namely self-understanding, university study, mentoring and leadership.

To further complement these activities, Lingnan offers a peer mentor programme for all new students, career guidance programmes, and opportunities for students to sharpen their management, communication and personal skills through organising or participating in student societies. 
 

Internationalisation

A major objective of Lingnan’s liberal arts education is to provide students with international exposure and whole-person development, particularly through bilateral cultural exchange. This is achieved by sending students abroad to experience different cultures, and by admitting non-local students for exchange or degree studies, so that they can experience our liberal arts environment as well as enrich it. Through cross-cultural interaction and exchange, our students not only gain additional knowledge, but also extra-curricular learning experiences and exposure to other cultures.

Over the years, we have established ongoing student exchange programmes on a “one-for-one” basis with partner institutions overseas and on the Chinese Mainland. To date, we have entered into agreements with around 100 partner institutions worldwide, encompassing the Chinese Mainland, Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.

A variety of scholarships are available to local and non-local undergraduates. For non-local students, scholarships include Lingnan University Non-local Student Scholarships and Huadu Sholarship.  Local students can apply for Dr Lee Sau Wai Pd., D, J P Alias Theodore Jon Leigh Scholarships, Lee Hysan Foundation Scholarships, The Li & Fung Scholarships and ZeShan Foundation Scholarships.
 
Needy local students who are interested in Student Exchange Programmes can apply for the Lingnan Foundation Outgoing Exchange Students Need-based Financial Aid Scheme and Lingnan Education Organisation Ambassador Programme - Student Exchange Travel Grants Scheme.

We will continue to expand our Mainland and international networking, particularly with renowned liberal arts colleges in the United States. Student exchange opportunities will increase in phases from the current 36.2% to 50%. By 2012, one out of two Lingnan students will be able to go on exchange for a term during their undergraduate study. In future, Lingnan will also continue to recruit non-local degree-seeking students from diverse cultures and award scholarships to outstanding students around the world and from less-developed areas on the Chinese Mainland. We hope to boost the ratio of non-local degree-seeking students from the present around 8% to 10% in the near future. Realising these goals will help us create a distinctive multi-cultural learning environment that will benefit both local and non-local students, while setting the pace for the University’s future internationalisation efforts.

 

Community Service

At Lingnan, community service is an integral part of campus life. We emphasise diversity in both teaching and learning, and use “Education for Service” as our guiding motto. Students are given many chances to engage in various service projects, which facilitate their development as an all-rounded individual with a social conscience. Through active community work, students have a real-life opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills, and to experience personal growth and fulfilment. They also gain a sense of social responsibility, learn about people from different walks of life, enhance their organisational, management and communication skills. 

Lingnan University’s mission is not only to develop scholars, but to nurture future leaders who care and act responsibly in the ever-changing society, as manifested in the University motto "Education for Service".

Service-Learning is such a pedagogy actualizing this long-standing motto of Lingnan. Different from community services, Service-Learning programme enables students to put theory into practice, and deliver meaningful services to the community based upon academic knowledge and research elements. Since the establishment of the Office of Service-Learning (OSL) at Lingnan University in 2006, a series of local and international service-learning programmes have become well-established.  Through collaboration with academic departemtns and community partners, service-learning has been well integrated in the the curriculum.  More than 1500 students have joined sevice-learning programmes and over 400 studetns participate in the programmes every year.  The following are highlights from two of our programmes. 

Local Service-Learning Programme - Strategic Planning on Gardening
OSL partnered with the Department of Management at Lingnan and the “Association for Engineering and Medical Volunteer Services – The Endeavor”, a local NGO, to incorporate service-learning into the course Strategic Management. During the course, students helped Mr Lee, an adept gardener with 30 years of experience in the business, and The Endeavor, which serves physically and mentally challenged clients, to write a proposal for developing a 40,000-square-feet community gardening farm in Tuen Mun. Applying theories they learned in the course lectures to the project, the students successfully evaluated the internal and external environment of Mr Lee’s gardening business. This is truly a demonstration of how Lingnan students uphold the spirit of “Serving to Learn, Learning to Serve”.

Village Adoption Project in Yunnan, China
OSL and Deloitte China have been jointly running a village adoption project in Yunnan, China for three years since 2007. This project aims to develop a model suitable for the sustainable development of a rural community in China through academic research, corporate social responsibility and volunteer services. This is the first service-learning partnership project dedicated in Mainland China's rural areas between a corporation and a tertiary institution. With successful experiences in the past three years, the project has been extended for another three years to benefit more lives in the region.