General Education Programme

The General Education (GE) Programme is an integral part of the future-shaping, transcultural, and transdisciplinary undergraduate curriculum at Hong Kong Baptist University. This programme, comprising Level 1 Foundational Courses, Level 2 Thematic Courses and Level 3 GE Capstone, empowers students to demonstrate transdisciplinary knowledge, analyse issues from multiple perspectives, develop and implement sustainable solutions for real-world challenges, and become agile, innovative, and socially responsible leaders who are ready to contribute to the future social, educational, organisational, and financial systems.

Intended Learning Outcomes of the GE Programme 

By the time students have completed the GE Programme, they are expected to have achieved a number of programme intended learning outcomes (PILOs). Broadly speaking, students should be able to: 

Programme Structure

The GE Programme offers three levels of learning from foundational courses to courses in themes, and a culminating experience, for a total of 22 units. The details are shown below:

Level 1 Foundational Courses (13 units)

This level of courses includes five categories, namely (i) AI Literacy, (ii) Healthy Lifestyle, (iii) Culture and Civilisation, (iv) Values and the Meaning of Life, and (v) Quantitative Reasoning. Students are required to take one course in each category, for a total of 13 units.

The courses at this level enable students to:

• Use transdisciplinary and transcultural perspectives to gain insight into contemporary issues;
• Apply various value systems and good life practices to decision-making in personal, professional, and social/political situations;
• Recognise the value and limitations in the quantitative data encountered in daily life, such as in the media or public reports, as well as to make use of quantitative data effectively to support sound reasoning; and
• Use AI technologies productively, critically and ethically in their studies, future careers and life.

AI Literacy (2 units) 

This category aims to enable students to:

1. Explain the key concepts and potential uses of AI in different domains;
2. Utilise AI tools productively in students’ personal, social, academic and professional lives;
3. Evaluate the risks, debates, and impacts of AI, in view of being responsible users of AI tools; and
4. Sustain human uniqueness and agency by analysing the wider effects of AI on human well-being, including creativity and innovation, critical thinking and behaviour, and sustained sense of agency while collaborating with AI for social good.

Healthy Lifestyle (2 units)

The courses in this category aim to enable students to:

1. Appreciate and value the benefits of healthy lifestyle practices by relating them to a healthy body from multiple perspectives;
2. Appreciate the importance of making health-enhancing decisions in daily living by adopting healthy habits such as intake of healthy foods, regular exercise, and managing life’s stresses through self-reflection, and mediation;
3. Reflect on the responsibilities and commitment associated with developing healthy relationships in social and family settings; and
4. Recognise the role of art and music in supporting healthy behaviours and lifestyle.

Culture and Civilisation (3 units)

The courses in this category aim to enable students to:

1. Critically appreciate the role of cultures and civilisations in human endeavours be it social, religious, political, economic, or scientific;
2. Understand how cultures and civilisations, their differences and interactions have shaped our current world affairs; and conversely, how the current world affairs have shaped the cultures and civilisations being seen;
3. Reflect on human activities, ideas, creations, institutions and impact from other cultural perspectives; and
4. Dialogue and work with people of different cultures for a peaceful, inclusive and sustainable lifestyle in a multicultural world. 

Values and the Meaning of Life (3 units)

The courses in this category aim to enable students to:

1. Engage in reflection on moral beliefs and practices, through inquiry into questions of ethics and morality as presented in one or more philosophical and/or religious traditions;
2. Identify, understand and reflect on ethical issues, and to articulate, assess and defend moral judgments in an informed and thoughtful way;
3. identify and evaluate moral dilemmas in the context of change and development in an increasingly globalised world;
4. Recognise philosophical views from different cultures and communities across different times and their implications for answering the question of how we are to live; and
5. Identify wellness and aesthetic practices of philosophical and/or religious wisdom pertaining to a good life.

Quantitative Reasoning (3 units)

The courses in this category aim to enable students to:

1. Use quantitative data for the purposes of analysis and reasoning to understand, interpret, critique, debunk, challenge, explicate, and draw conclusions;
2. Apply basic mathematics skills and technologies to the analysis and interpretation of real-world quantitative information (e.g. Big Data) in the context of a discipline or a transdisciplinary problem to draw conclusions that are relevant to important social issues; and
3. Model and solve problems with quantitative methods, such as using formulas, interpreting graphs, tables, and schematics, and drawing inferences from them.

Level 2  Thematic Courses (6 units)

This level includes three themes of courses, namely (i) Culture, Creativity and Innovation, (ii) Science, Technology and Society and (iii) Sustainable Communities. Students are required to take two 3-unit courses under any one or two of the themes, for a total of 6 units.

The courses at this level enable students to:

• Relate the thematic issues with a variety of disciplines, so as to gain insight into integrating various cultural and disciplinary perspectives, and synthesising ideas, practices and solutions; and
• Promote HKBU’s ethos of Whole Person Education through transdisciplinary, transcultural, experiential, and/or service learning.

Culture, Creativity and Innovation

The thematic courses in this category enable students to:

1. Recognise that cultural factors clearly have a profound influence on different outlets for creative expression, on the nature of the subject matter and form of expression, and on the functions that various forms of expression serve;
2. Appreciate that “culture” is essential to understanding the role and responsibility of citizenship, and important to creativity and innovation;
3. Define creativity in the larger context of originality, meaningfulness, and value – and the way that this manifests itself around the world;
4. Recognise that creativity and innovation are ways of thinking and collaborative processes; and
5. Understand the theoretical models that show the effect of culture on creativity in the global context.

Science, Technology and Society

The thematic courses in this category address:

1. The role of technology in human history, and more specifically the importance of technology and technological innovation to various civilisations;
2. How ideas about the nature have evolved, leading to scientific and technological developments that impact societies around the world;
3. How technology and science have far-reaching effects upon values, cultures, economy and the social, commercial and legal systems of different communities;
4. What are the ethical and moral reasoning for the use of some technological developments around the world;
5. How cultural, political, and economic values help to shape and direct technological developments, which in turn can have a profound effect on those same social values and the society that holds them; and
6. How different societies or communities respond and react to the advancement of technology.

Sustainable Communities

The thematic courses in this category address how to:

1. Protect and enhance local and regional ecosystems and biological diversity;
2. Utilise prevention strategies and appropriate technologies to minimise environmental concerns that relate to conservation of water, land, energy, and nonrenewable resources;
3. Attend to the basic human rights of all community members and defend against injustices including exploitation and psychological and physical harm;
4. Design diverse and financially viable economic base for the community; and
5. Provide businesses and services that enhance community sustainability.

Level 3  GE Capstone (3 units)

As a culminating experience in the GE Programme, students have an opportunity to engage in the following learning activities that will further enhance their skills in a variety of ways. Students are required to complete any one of the following:

• Capstone Course, which can be a Service-learning course or an Experiential Learning course, with a project as a key element; or
• Capstone Workshop, which allows students to join activities or competitions in groups under the supervision of a teacher.

The Workshop should be transdisciplinary, solution-based, and involve teamwork, focusing on entrepreneurship, social innovation, scientific advancement, and global sustainable development. Students will need to complete the assessment tasks as outlined in the course, which can be done by a group of students or individually under the supervision of the teacher.

The courses at this level enable students to:

1. Synthesise knowledge from various disciplines and sectors for innovative solutions to an important issue faced by local, regional, and/or the global community;
2. Develop empathy, social awareness and commitment to the community;
3. Identify ways to strengthen professional skills and generic competencies (e.g. creativity, communication, problem-solving, and teamwork) for the common good; and
4. Apply knowledge and skills to address community needs through generating solutions, engaging in service, community advocacy, and/or entrepreneurship.