Bulletin No. 1, 2012

A Brand New Reacquaintance   5  and convener of the Task Force to Prepare for a Four-year Normative Curriculum, said, ‘With its experience, the University is able to realign to a four- year system more easily, while developing a new modern curriculum from the ground up that nurtures students to meet the challenges of the times and society’s changing expectations. The University views the change in curriculum as more than an increase in the normative duration or merely additions to subject content. Taking advantage of the change in structure to reflect on the true meaning of university education, and to promote innovations in pedagogy, the University has developed a new four-year curriculum, an initiative that has involved virtually the entire university over the past several years.’ The Task Force to Prepare for a Four-year Normative Curriculum, set up in 2005, has held numerous discussions about how the desired attributes of graduates and the expected learning outcomes can be realized in each programme, then drilled down into courses. Mr. Eric S.P. Ng , University Registrar and a member of the Task Force, believes the greatest challenge in curriculum development Mr. Eric S.P. Ng Prof. Benjamin W. Wah Curriculum Structure Component Unit Range Major Faculty Package 51–72* Major Required Major Elective Minor (optional) 18–30 Languages Chinese 6 English 9 General Education 21 Information Technology 1 Physical Education 2 Free Electives Remaining Units Total At least 123 *For some professional programmes and programmes of more than four years’ normative period of study, the maximum exceeds 72. lay in having to start from scratch and adopting a new mindset. ‘The planning had to be from first principles to avoid simply reverting to old structures. The outcomes-based approaches to teaching and learning had to be adopted as a basic principle in curriculum design and management.’