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The general education initiative in Hong Kong: organized contradictions and emerging tensions

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Abstract

In 2012 all Hong Kong universities will be extending the length of the undergraduate degree from 3 to 4 years and adding General Education as a degree requirement. This reform initiative represents a unique case of comprehensive organizational change of higher education on an unprecedented scale. This paper examines several of the most significant contradictions and tensions facing this initiative—the current structure of higher education based on the British system and the prevailing culture of teaching and learning in Hong Kong. The nature of these pre-existing conditions, and their contradictory relationship to the substance and purpose of general and liberal education, are outlined. The contradictions and tensions generated by the general education initiative are situated within the larger organizational tension between theory and practice, and structure and action. The paper delineates some of the strategies developed to address the existing and emerging tensions.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to the Fulbright Program, the Po & Helen Chung Foundation, the Hong Kong-America Center, and the Office of Education Development and General Education (EDGE) at the City University of Hong Kong for their financial and/or in-kind support; thanks to Glenn Shive, Tom Osgood, David Skidmore, Robert Gurval, Dave Randall and reviewers for their feedback and suggestions on an earlier draft of the manuscript.

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  1. University of North Florida, 1 UNF Drive, Jacksonville, FL, 32224, USA

    David Jaffee

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Jaffee, D. The general education initiative in Hong Kong: organized contradictions and emerging tensions. High Educ 64, 193–206 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-011-9487-y

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