Programme Structure
For AY2025/26 cohort of Year 1 students |
For AY2024/25 cohort of students or before; |
This GE curriculum applies to: i. AY2025/26 cohort of first-year-first-degree (FYFD) students, or after; ii. AY2026/27 cohort of Year 2 entrants, or after; iii. AY2027/28 cohort of Year 3 Senior Year entrants, or after.
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Programme Structure
Our General Education 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.
After completing the GE Programme, students are expected to achieve the following programme intended learning outcomes (PILOs):
PILO1 |
Assimilate transdisciplinary and transcultural knowledge and perspectives to gain insights and synthesise ideas; |
PILO2 |
Articulate the ethical and critical uses of technologies for social good; |
PILO3 |
Analyse data and facts holistically and critically; |
PILO4 |
Assess issues from different ethical and moral views and perspectives; |
PILO5 |
Appraise different lifestyles and solutions to problems through practice and advocacy. |
Structure and Category Aims
The GE Programme offers three levels of learning, from foundational courses to courses in themes, and a culminating capstone experience, for a total of 22 units.
Level 1: Foundational Courses
This level of courses includes five categories. All students are required to take one course in EACH of the following categories, for a total of 13 units: i. AI Literacy (2 units) ii. Healthy Lifestyle (2 units) iii. Culture and Civilisation (3 units) iv. Values and the Meaning of Life (3 units) v. Quantitative Reasoning (3 units)
The courses at this level enable students to:
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Level 2: Thematic Courses
All students are required to take two 3-unit courses under any one or two of the following themes, for a total of 6 units: i. Culture, Creativity and Innovation ii. Science, Technology and Society iii. Sustainable Communities
The courses at this level enable students to:
Example: Students can choose two courses in “Culture, Creativity and Innovation” OR one course in “Science, Technology and Society” plus one course in “Sustainable Communities” to fulfil the 6-unit Level 2 requirement.
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Level 3: GE Capstone
As a culminating capstone experience in the GE Programme, students are required to complete a 3-unit GE Capstone Course or a 3-unit Capstone Workshop:
i. GE Capstone Course: A Service-Learning course or an Experiential Learning course with a project as a key element.
ii. GE Capstone Workshop:
The GE Capstone Courses and GE Capstone Workshop enable students to:
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General Education at HKBU
This GE curriculum applies to: For Students of i. AY2024/25 cohort of first-year-first-degree (FYFD) students, or before; ii. AY2025/26 cohort of Year 2 entrants, or before; iii. AY2026/27 cohort of Year 3 Senior Year entrants, or before
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Our GE Programme provides students with a well-rounded university education, and is an integral part of the University’s commitment to help them achieve the HKBU Graduate Attributes (GAs). Our GE foregrounds the essential elements of Whole Person Education, such as integration of knowledge, acquisition of multiple perspectives, empathy and critical thinking, and aims to nurture our students to become responsible and responsive citizens.
The GE Programme is designed to equip students with integrated broad-based knowledge, transferable core skills, guiding principles, and attitudes that they need in both their specialized studies and future professional and personal lives. Our GE asks students to open up their minds to new ideas and perspectives, imagine possibilities, and acquire a deeper understanding of people and issues through making connections at personal, societal and historical levels. It cultivates our students to become well-rounded persons capable of fully participating in the fast-changing, interconnected global world.
Programme Structure
Under the undergraduate curriculum, students are required to complete a minimum of 128 units, with four broad categories, including the major programme, electives, the University Core requirements and the General Education (GE) Programme.
Our GE Programme enables students to make intellectual connections across different disciplines. All GE courses are interdisciplinary and designed according to their themes/categories and levels. After taking Level 1 Foundational Courses and Level 2 Interdisciplinary Thematic Courses, students will proceed to Level 3 GE Capstone which allows them to apply, in a structured way, their integrated knowledge culminated from interdisciplinary studies and peer learning to real-world issues.
After completing the GE Programme, students are expected to achieve a number of programme intended learning outcomes:
PILO1 | Use historical and cultural perspectives to gain insight into the contemporary issues; |
PILO2 | Apply various value systems to decision-making in personal, professional, and social/political situations; |
PILO3 | Use data for the purposes of analyses and to make recommendations for strategic implementation of policy on social, economic and business, cultural, and political affairs; |
PILO4 | Relate their majors with interdisciplinary thematic knowledge; |
PILO5 | Demonstrate connections among a variety of disciplines to gain insight into contemporary personal, professional, and community situations. |
Structure and Category Aims
The GE Programme offers three levels of learning, from foundational courses to courses in themes, and a culminating capstone experience, for a total of 18 units. All courses and independent studies are interdisciplinary.



All students are required to take one 3-unit course in each of the following categories:
History and Civilization
Quantitative Reasoning
Values and the Meaning of Life
The interdisciplinary courses in this level enable students to:
- Use historical and cultural perspectives to gain insight into contemporary issues;
- Apply various value systems to decision-making in personal, professional, and social/political situations;
- Recognize 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.
Level 2: Interdisciplinary Thematic Courses
All students are required to take two 3-unit courses under any one or two of the following themes#:
Culture, Creativity and Innovation
Science, Technology and Society
Sustainable Communities
The interdisciplinary courses in this level enable students to:
- Relate their majors with interdisciplinary thematic knowledge and make connections among a variety of disciplines, so as to gain insight into a wide range of issues pertinent to contemporary personal, professional, and community situations;
- Promote HKBU’s ethos of Whole Person Education.
As a culminating capstone experience in the GE Programme, students are required to complete an interdisciplinary GE Capstone course or an interdisciplinary independent study, which will be in the format of:
Interdisciplinary GE Capstone Course
Courses with structured classes, syllabi, pedagogies and assessment methods, with a project as a key element. These include:
Service-Learning
Service Leadership Education
Experiential Learning
Interdisciplinary Independent Study
- Interdisciplinary group project under the supervision of a faculty member
- An individual interdisciplinary project of a student’s own choice under the supervision of a faculty member
- Both the group and individual projects can take the form of a thematic study or an experiential learning project.
The interdisciplinary GE Capstone courses and independent studies enable students to:
- Synthesize knowledge from various disciplines and to provide innovative solutions to solve a societal or global problem;
- Value the importance of working as a team for the common good;
- Show what has been learnt in the classroom and experiential environments can be applied to addressing an important issue faced by local, regional, and the global community.
Remarks:
* The course code of both GE Capstone Courses and Independent Studies start with “GCAP”. Students should refer to the course list for detailed information.
# Example: Students can choose two GTCU courses OR one GTCU plus one GTSC course to fulfil the 6-unit Level 2 requirement.