Bringing insider perspectives into Inclusive Service-Learning

The University hosted the Higher Education Service-Learning Symposium titled “21st Century Service-Learning Model for Inclusive Growth” on 12 November. The event was organised by the University’s Office of Service-Learning and as part of the Jockey Club “We Care, We Serve & We Learn @ Tuen Mun” Programme. Over 120 guests from Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore had registered for the symposium and various post-conference events. Local and overseas experts from Kazakhstan, Taiwan and elsewhere spoke on a wide range of topics including Education for Whole Person Development, Startups and Social Innovations, as well as Inclusive and Sustainable Development. An exhibition was also held to showcase the companies started up by Lingnan students and alumni and the products offered by these startups.

To kick off the conference and welcome more than one hundred guests, Prof Joshua MOK, Vice-President of the University, highlighted the vital role of universities nowadays in fostering a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation and elaborated on Lingnan’s liberal arts tradition in offering service-learning experiences for students through the university curricula, campus life, internationalisation efforts and community service projects. Building on Prof Mok’s focus on the importance  of whole person development, Dr Gulmira KURGANBAYEVA, the Rector of Almaty Management University in Kazakhstan, expounded on the ways to use service-learning to enhance spiritual intelligence which may be regarded as an additional dimension to intelligence quotient (IQ) and emotional quotient (EQ).