To better appreciate students’ understanding of and expectations from the university general education curriculum, their learning experiences in taking general education courses and their satisfaction with related university courses, the RCGE and Office of University General Education conducted two rounds of student focus group interviews in the 2005-06 academic year, inviting a total of 60 students from different departments and colleges to participate.  The two rounds of interviews mainly revolved around such questions as the reasons for taking general education courses, how students assess the value of general education, what students expected from general education, etc. asking the students to relate their own opinions.

The results of the interviews show that the students expressed themselves as being conflicted when it came to choosing between and balancing “interests and grades”, “major and general education” and “reality and ideals”, a fact that directly affected their knowledge of and learning attitude toward general education.  The detailed report on the interviews was published in the article entitled “Conflict Between Ideals and Reality — Study and Analysis of CUHK Student Focus Group” (full text in Chinese) which appeared in 2nd Issue of the University General Education Bulletin.