Hong Kong universities will move to four-year undergraduate programs beginning in September, 2012. All universities in HK have begun to plan for new curriculum and course design to add the fourth year. Implementing this transition will be a major task for the eight HK universities in the run-up to 2012. Meanwhile, secondary schools are introducing a new, comprehensive liberal studies curriculum and need trained teachers and appropriate curriculum materials to make this innovation succeed.
America’s best research universities and liberal arts colleges have mature general education and liberal studies programs designed for the four-year undergraduate curriculum. The Fulbright Program plans to provide new HK-US academic exchange opportunities by creating twenty new lectureship awards in the run-up to 2012 to bring prominent American faculty who have developed and guided exemplary general education programs in the U.S. to come to Hong Kong and work with scholars and teachers in the field of general education in a unique East-West cultural context.
Currently Fulbright brings four lecturers and one researcher to Hong Kong each year to teach and do collaborative research in Hong Kong universities. This program has recently expanded to Macau. With expertise in different fields and based in different universities in HK, these American scholars tend naturally to operate independently of one another and focus on teaching in their host academic departments.
Mr. Po Chung, a prominent philanthropist in Hong Kong and founder of DHL in Asia, has generously contributed over US$ 1 million to HK universities to support American Fulbright scholars and leaders in general education to come to Hong Kong beginning in September 2008. The Hong Kong government has matched these funds totally about US$ 1 million. Specially recruited Fulbright scholars will be placed over four years at the universities of the Hong Kong America Center.
They are:
Hong Kong University (HKU)
Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) FHKGEP description 1
City University of Hong Kong (CityU)
Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU)
Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU)
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)
Lingnan University (LU)
Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd)
Most awards will be for ten months or two semesters, although some awards may be for five months or one semester.
The Council of International Exchange of Scholars (www.cies.org) will recruit and screen applications from American scholars for this special Fulbright program in Hong Kong. The deadline for receiving applications for the first year of these awards (starting in September 2008) is August 1, 2007. The contact person is Dr. David B. J. Adams, Senior Program Officer at CIES at dadams@iie.org or at 202-686-4021. Mr. Tom Osgood has been seconded to the HKAC from the Po and Helen Chung Foundation for the initial period of this project to assist in the U.S. with recruitment for this project. He is at: taosgood@shasta.com.
These American scholars will work with Hong Kong scholars who are developing general education in their host universities. Their housing will be provided by the host universities. In addition, they will be affiliated with the Hong Kong America Center, a consortium of Hong Kong universities, and are expected to work together as a team throughout their sojourns in HK to strengthen general education in all HK universities in the run-up to the first intake of students in the four-year curriculum beginning in September, 2012. The HKAC will convene regular working meetings of the Fulbright scholars and their HK colleagues to share experience and promote collaboration among universities.
While their fields of academic specialty may vary, the major criteria for selecting these Fulbright scholars will be their ability to contribute to developing new interdisciplinary curriculum and pedagogical skills in HK universities. These curriculums will reflect broad themes of Western and Asian civilizations and will be designed to give HK students broad knowledge and personal insight about these civilizations, and how they have mingled in the formation of Hong Kong society. This understanding should enable them to take on productive economic roles and civic participation in HK in the 21st century.
While local HK scholars will bring academic strength and teaching experience in Asian civilizations and values, the American Fulbright scholars, whatever their academic disciplines, will be expected to contribute in the formation and implementation of new curriculum elements which include formative aspects of the Hebrew-Christian, Greco-Roman and Anglo-American civilizations. American scholars of Asia who teach in integrated liberal arts programs in American colleges and universities are encouraged to apply.
While each Fulbright scholar will be located at a host university and work mainly with its team of academics on general education, the Fulbright scholars will also operate as a team across the universities. The HKAC, working with CIES and the US Consulate in HK, will arrange the placements at the universities each year, orient the Fulbright scholars before departure in the US (via online) and upon arrival, and convene regular working meetings during the year. The HKAC will pay the stipends and other fees to the scholars. Dr Glenn Shive, Director of the HKAC, will serve as the coordinator of the FHKGEP. He is at: glennshive@cuhk.edu.hk.
As part of the FHKGEP, the HKAC and the Fulbright scholars will organize an annual program on general education in HK from May 2009 onward. This HK/ Fulbright conference or workshop will bring together each year for four years the academics who are working on the design and implementation the new general education curriculum in the run-up to 2012. The program venue for this workshop will rotate each year among the HK universities. The final workshop in May 2012 will be larger and serve as a summative event for the whole Fulbright project. The Center will also edit a book on general education in the HK university context, to which each participating Fulbright scholar is expected to contribute.
The FHKGEP will also promote communication wherever appropriate with initiatives in the secondary schools of HK to develop liberal studies curriculum for the new 3-3-4 education framework in HK. Potentially many teachers in high school liberal studies programs will receive training from the universities. The FHKGEP will help to advance the articulation of general education and liberal studies across the student transition from secondary to post-secondary systems.
Fulbright/CIES will recruit educators who have achievements in developing, managing and delivering general education at the university level in the U.S. We seek scholars who have a passion for teaching and deep interest in the inter-relationship of bodies of knowledge in the context of educating students beyond their academic majors. They should have strong records in their respective academic fields, which may be in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, policy studies, business, law, the arts, etc. The general education units and teaching-learning centers of the HK universities, working with the HKAC, will set the criteria and desired profiles of skills to recruit each year. The Fulbright scholars will be affiliated with the general education units and will be cross-assigned to appropriate academic departments for some teaching responsibilities and collegial interaction with local scholars in their fields. We expect the Fulbright scholars to teach about half-time and to reserve other time for developmental work on general education at their host universities, as well as to collaborate across institutions on general education where appropriate.
Optimally, the American Fulbright scholars in this program will have strength in academic content and pedagogical process, including curriculum design and development, teacher training and mentoring, outcomes-based instruction, authentic assessment, and/or the innovative use of information technology in the teaching learning process in higher education. In the early years of the project there may be a preference for applicants with demonstrated skills in curriculum design, with the middle years involving more training and mentoring of academic staff in the teaching of general education. Each summer, one cohort of Fulbright scholars will complete their work in HK and return to the US and the next cohort will arrive in HK to take the project to the next level. The HKAC, serving as coordinator of the FHKGEP, will endeavor to provide continuity across these annual transitions.
By 2012, we anticipate about twenty American academics will have spent a year in HK in four different cohorts. (Some awards may be made on a one-semester basis). The alumni of the FHKGEP will constitute a unique resource in the US for HK universities as they evolve their general education programs beyond 2012. We hope that the Fulbright scholars in the FHKGEP will remain engaged with their HK host universities to develop partnerships for student exchanges. These may involve two-way movement of students and/or the joint delivery of general education via technology reflecting Asian and Western dimensions of world civilization. We also hope these returned Fulbright scholars will advocate for a greater place for Asian civilization in general education programs in American universities.
Comments are welcome at: glennshive@cuhk.edu.hk or (852)-2609-8749.
For more information please visit www.hkgei.org.