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The new “3+3+4” academic structure will be implemented in the higher education sector in 2012/13. The first batch of the students taking the four-year curriculum will enter the local institutions in September next year – turning a new page in the development of higher education in Hong Kong. The UGC and its funded institutions are also prepared – to seize the opportunities brought by the new academic structure and to meet the challenges arising from the double cohorts of students next year. Revamping Existing Curriculum To complement the new four-year curriculum, institutions have taken the opportunity to review and revamp its existing programmes, introduce new courses and incorporate new elements (such as comprehensive education, whole person education and inter-disciplinarity). To provide flexibility for the students in course selection so as to enrich their learning experience, institutions have enhanced its general education elements or introduced capstone courses, in addition to its core, major and minor programmes. On the design of curriculum, some institutions have incorporated participation in overseas exchange programmes and internships into the four-year curriculum to broaden the students’ international perspective; some have even put research, internships and social service as part of their graduation requirements to allow students to acquire experience in research and social projects during their undergraduate studies. To allow the three-year cohort to also benefit from the revamping of the curriculum, some of the new elements have been incorporated into the existing three-year curriculum. The feedback from these students will be useful to help institutions in reviewing and improving the respective courses before the actual implementation of the new academic structure. To increase student places for both cohorts of students Regarding student places, we understand that there have been some comments from the general public that the old cohort of students need to give away places to make room for the new cohort – this is not the situation. The eight-funded institutions are currently providing a total of 14620 first-year-first-degree (FYFD) places. In view of the need to articulate to the higher education institutions of the two cohorts, the Administration has set aside resources for the institutions to offer a total of 30000 FYFD places (i.e. 15000 places for the three-year curriculum and another 15000 places for the four-year curriculum). There will be no competition between the two cohorts of students, and hence the circumstances of “giving away” places will not occur. To implement measures to handle the two cohorts of students entering the universities at the same time Institutions are in their final preparation for the new “3+3+4” academic structure (for instance in the programme revamping, basic infrastructure, teaching staff recruitment, etc.) The biggest challenge faced by the institutions at present is how to handle the issue of both cohorts of students entering the universities next year. Since both cohorts of students will co-exist for a period of time, institutions will implement a number of measures to meet the mounting demand for services by the two cohorts. Institutions would need to process the applications from the graduates from the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination and the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education in a few months since the second quarter next year. To allow institutions to have ample time to process a large number of applications, the Hong Kong Examination and Assessment Authority and the Joint University Programmes Admission System (JUPAS) Office have decided to stagger the announcement of the examination and JUPAS results of the two public examinations. Institutions will also split up the processing of the applications of the two cohorts of students. Besides, in view of the fact that the four-year cohort of students is one year younger than the three-year cohort, in terms of their age and study experience, and hence entail better psychological preparation, institutions will strengthen its existing counseling services to provide better support to these students to facilitate them to adapt to the campus life. Most of the campus expansion and supporting facilities projects are in the final stage. Although the schedule of some projects are quite tight, and there may be delay in some of them, institutions have formulated detailed contingency plans, such as scheduling weekend classes, extending the classes at night, or even renting classrooms from business offices nearby or the respective community colleges, to resolve the problem so as not to affect teaching and learning of the students. Some institutions are actively considering staggering and deferring the commencement days of the fall semester of the two cohorts, in order to alleviate the pressure brought by the surge in student population. Apart from hardware facilities, institutions have also installed and upgraded its computer system by stages, and to perform test-run on the system, to cope with the high usage of the students on registering and selecting courses at the beginning of the semester. 2012 is a key milestone in the implementation of the new academic structure. The UGC will continue to maintain close contact with the funded institutions in the coming year to ensure the smooth transition to the new academic structure. We believe institutions will further enhance its quality to nurture the academic attainment and whole person development of the students under the new “3+3+4” curriculum. University Grants Committee |
