General Education

The EdUHK’s General Education programme prepares students to be active agents of change, by broadening their intellectual horizons, helping them make connections among different areas of knowledge and between their formal studies and life outside the classroom, and strengthening their capacity for sound thinking and good judgement. It offers a varied but balanced mix of individual courses across a range of subject areas and disciplines, set within an integrated structure of (i) General Education Foundation Course, (ii) Experiential Learning, (iii) General Education Breadth Courses, and (iv) University ePortfolio at a total of 22 credit points.

  1. General Education Foundation Course (4 cps)
    General Education Foundation Course (GEFC) is a 4-credit point course that will run in Semesters 1 and 2, and will be taken by all first year students at EdUHK. The purpose of the course is to introduce first year students to a range of disciplines and methodologies from the perspectives of senior academics who are experts in their respective fields.
     
  2. Experiential Learning (6 cps)
    Experiential Learning (EL) is composed of a 3-cp Co-curricular Service Learning Course (CSLC) and a 3-cp Experiential Learning Course (ELC) which will be offered by departments under the GE domain. Students have to take one of each component for fulfilling the EL (6 cps) requirement.

    The 3-cp CSLC provides students with an opportunity to engage in learning in action and through co-curricular learning activities with direct service elements in real-life or work-place context while complementing, connecting with, and mirroring their learning experiences derived from formal curriculum. The 3-cp ELC encourages students to learn through experimentation, observation, reflection and (re-) conceptualization while undertaking a wide variety of activities, such as creative work, field studies, projects, thematic overseas trips, outward-bound training etc. These courses enrich students’ learning experiences and skills through learning, thinking and reflecting on practice, in practice and for practice, while exposing them to authentic and real-life contexts.

    CSLCs and ELCs will be made available for all undergraduate students, except the final year of non-BEd programmes.
     
  3. General Education Breadth Courses (9 cps)
    Under the new curriculum (from 2019/20 onwards), the General Education Breadth Courses (GEBCs) (9 cps) are composed of General Education Breadth Learning Strands (1-3) (GELS) (Level 1-2), Positive and Values Education (PAVE) Course and General Education Interdisciplinary Course (GEIC) (Level 4), students have to take one of each component for fulfilling the GEBCs (9 cps) requirement.

    These courses aim to equip students better for the study of the ontological, epistemological and/or methodological issues in a wide variety of disciplines. Side by side with these existing components, a new 3-cp GEIC (Level 4) will be offered on cross-faculty and/ or cross-departmental basis for students from Year 2 Semester 2 to Year 3, in order to enable them to appreciate the complexity of issues and problems that transcend disciplinary boundaries and make sense of them through dialogues across or integration of disciplines.

    Students are allowed to take GELS and PAVE Course after the completion of GEFC or concurrently with GEFC in Year 1 Semester 2 if they are interested and their curriculum schedules allow. After the completion of any GELS or PAVE Course, students are allowed to take the GEIC from Year 2 Semester 2 to Year 3.
     
  4. University ePortfolio (3 cps)
    After the completion of these courses, students will take a 3-cp course at Consolidation Level to complete their University ePortfolios normally before the final year. Based on their on-going evidence-based reflections on learning since Year One through Years Two-Three/Four, students are required to complete the construction of their University ePortfolios that are made up of the artifacts and evidence derived from a wide variety of learning experiences (e.g. Language Enhancement, GEFC, GELS, PAVE Course and GEIC, Majors, Minors/Electives, Field Experience/Internship, Exchange Programme, CSLCs, ELCs etc.). It provides an intellectual platform for students to synthesize their learning experiences garnered from the academic journey at the EdUHK by critically reflecting on the values and significance of what they have learned, making connections to their lives, and charting or imagining their own future.