Programme Structure

For AY2025/26 cohort of Year 1 students

For AY2024/25 cohort of students or before;

or AY2025/26 cohort of Year 2 /

Year 3 Senior Year entrants

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.

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:

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;
Use AI technologies productively, critically and ethically in their studies, future careers and life.

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:

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;
Promote HKBU’s ethos of Whole Person Education through transdisciplinary, transcultural, experiential, and/or service learning.

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.

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:

Students can 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;
Assessment tasks can be done by a group of students or individually under the supervision of the teacher.

The GE Capstone Courses and GE Capstone Workshop enable students to:

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

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

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 Public Photos / Files - Webpage pie chat

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.

Level 1: Foundational Courses

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.

Level 3: GE Capstone

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.