As a premier liberal arts university in Hong Kong as well as one of the founding members of the Alliance of Asian Liberal Arts Universities, Lingnan University welcomed more than 400 students to its inaugural Lingnan University Jockey Club Liberal Arts Summer Institute held from May to August 2018 and funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. The students came from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, member institutions of the Alliance of Asian Liberal Arts Universities, universities in the mainland and secondary schools in Hong Kong. Participants had the opportunity to interact with a community of like-minded students from Lingnan University, experienced the unique features of liberal arts education at Lingnan University’s picturesque campus in Tuen Mun, and explored the vibrancy and diversity of Hong Kong culture.
Over twenty credit-bearing courses were offered, such as Adapted Physical Activity and Society, Media Literacy, and Social and Economic History of South China that attracted many enthusiastic students. Different from the summer programmes as offered by the University in the past years, the Summer Institute also tailor-made an open course – Summer Cart Noodle: Hong Kong Art, providing both on-campus and off-campus art learning opportunities to the students with a real hands-on experience, featuring a series of art workshops led by emerging local fine artists and digital media artists, as well as guest talks at the campus, and art trips to various key art institutions and in-season exhibitions in Hong Kong.
The University also encourages secondary students to pursue liberal arts disciplines for university education. Miss Futatsugi Motoka from the High School Affiliated to Fudan University undertook a junior research project entitled “Tourism in Hong Kong and its competitors”, during her residence in the University as a Liberal Arts Young Scholar. Her research project investigates what makes Hong Kong succeed in tourism by comparing Hong Kong with Shanghai and Tokyo in areas such as: (i) ease of language communication, (ii) barrier-free facilities, (iii) cultural uniqueness, (iv) shopping services, (v) food culture, and (vi) transport accessibility.
Interim data collected from 393 participants indicate that 95.3% of the students were satisfied with the learning experience in the Summer Institute. More specifically, they have acquired the knowledge and skills taught at the Summer Institute, and they have enhanced global citizenship qualities.
The Lingnan University Jockey Club Liberal Arts Summer Institute contributes to University’s community engagement activities to stimulate an appreciation of liberal arts education and widen cultural horizons of students. For more information of the Summer Institute, please visit www.LN.edu.hk/summer.