Learning & Teaching

In September, four colleagues involved in the Curriculum for Life workstream visited Hong Kong University to gain a better insight into their Common Core Programme. This visit was organised to help inform our approach to Curriculum for Life at University of Glasgow as HKU is one of UofG’s key strategic partners, and its Common Core is an advanced interdisciplinary learning offering. And, here is what they found.

HKU in Context

Following a similar degree structure, HKU offers 4-year undergraduate degrees across 10 faculties with a similar balance of professional and general degrees. The University has over thirty thousand students, with planned growth into the international market, and is listed in the THE Top 100.

What is the Common Core?

This is a credit bearing offering to all undergraduate students of interdisciplinary courses, outside of their core discipline. The Common Core is an intrinsic part of an undergraduate degree at HKU. Students take multiple courses within their programme, about 10%-15% of their total curriculum.

 

What did our colleagues do at HKU?

Over the course of 5 days, our colleagues connected with over 60 staff members and 800 students across the Common Core. They attended Common Core lectures, tutorials and a GenAI workshop. They co-hosted a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) workshop, as well as hosting a reception and dinner for the HKU colleagues. Find out more about COIL at the University of Glasgow here.

Key takeaways

• All common core courses are credit bearing, a key incentive for students. We feel that this represents the vision we see for Curriculum for Life.
• Students take multiple courses within the Common Core programme in parallel to their specific disciplinary degree programme, which we hope University of Glasgow students will be able to do through our offering.
• The Common Core courses avoid exams, and instead focus on challenge-based assessment. From this learning, we are working to offer inclusive and alternative assessment options in the Curriculum for Life suite of courses.

For further queries on the HKU visit, please contact the Learning & Teaching Strategy team at strategy-learningandteaching@glasgow.ac.uk

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First published: 11 December 2024