Fulbright Scholars’ Visit to HKUST on 19 November 2009

With kind arrangement of the Hong Kong-America Center, five Fulbright Scholars, Dr David Campion, Dr Joseph Chaney, Dr Hedley Freake, Dr Gray Kochhar-Lindgren and Dr David Pong, visited HKUST on 19 November 2009. They met with faculty from different schools and departments over a forum at which views on general education issues were exchanged, and experiences in developing common core courses shared.

The introductory seminar "The Practice and the Practicality of General Education" delivered by Prof Eugene Eoyang gave a comprehensive overview of the development of general education and recommended modifications to general education programs that are of significance to serving the needs of a fast changing environment nowadays and in the future. Prof Eoyang is Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature and of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the Indiana University, also Professor Emeritus and former Director of General Education at Lingnan University.

The Fulbright Scholars acted as moderators at two break-out sessions following Prof Eoyang's talk, at which participants engaged in the discussion of two questions:

• Should there be any prescribed elements in General Education (GE)? Would such prescribed elements help deliver the GE in alignment with our institutional character? How do we define the prescribed elements?
• HKUST is a research-based university focusing on science & technology. Most of our undergraduates received science education during their high school, but are less cultivated in non-science disciplines. How could we arouse their interest to pursue an all-round education during their college years? How should we develop interdisciplinary GE courses to fit the student population at HKUST?

The discussions offered useful thoughts and inputs to HKUST in developing new common core courses.

• Brief biography of Prof Eugene Eoyang
• Brief biography of the Fulbright Scholars