Lingnan University celebrates the Chinese New Year with the media

14 Mar 2018

CNY2018

Senior management members of Lingnan University (from left) Prof Emilie Yeh, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Dr Li Donghui, Associate Vice-President (Student Affairs), Prof Shalendra Sharma, Associate Vice-President (Academic Quality Assurance and Internationalisation), President Leonard K Cheng, Prof Joshua Mok Ka-ho, Vice-President, Prof Lui Hon Kwong, Associate Vice-President (Academic Affairs) and Prof Liu Liming, Dean of the Faculty of Business greeted friends from the media.

Lingnan University organised the Chinese New Year Party and Media Gathering 2018 today (14 March), during which President Leonard K Cheng and other representatives of the University met with and greeted friends from the media at the beginning of the Year of the Dog.

 

In his address, President Cheng pointed out that while he will continue to serve as the President of Lingnan University for another term, many of the University’s future endeavours will have deep impact on the University’s long-term development.  “These include the execution of our 2016-2022 Strategic Plan and the formulation of the next six-year strategic plan.  In the following two years, we need to prepare for the next round of Research Assessment Exercise administered by the Research Grants Council and the 2019-2022 Triennium Planning Exercise, and then work out concrete plans for our development after the announcements of grant results,” said President Cheng.

 

As a publicly-funded university, Lingnan should meet the needs of the society in the future, and develop new programmes that combine its position and distinctive edges.  President Cheng gave an example that Hong Kong is an international city enjoying the opportunities of “Belt and Road” and “Greater Bay Area” initiatives.  Its younger generation should have more opportunities and room for development in the region and beyond.  Lingnan is a highly internationalised liberal arts university with an emphasis on students’ international exposure.  Its partnerships with over 190 overseas institutions provide students with ample exchange opportunities.  Based on this comparative advantage, the University plans to launch a global elite liberal arts undergraduate programme, which allows students to study at its partner institutions in three continents, nurturing their global vision and preparing them for future challenges and opportunities.

 

Besides, the University plans to launch an undergraduate programme on data science.  Since the application of data science has an increasingly important contribution on economic development, the demand for data scientists will also increase.  The programme is a direct response to the University Grants Committee’s call for more programmes on data science and big data analytics.  “While most existing programmes focus on business or mathematics/statistics or computer science, our programme has a strong liberal arts foundation, which not only allows students to master professional knowledge in computer, mathematics and statistics, but also trains their interdisciplinary thinking, communication skills and analytical skills, so that they can apply their knowledge and skills on different fields, said President Cheng.   

 

The University is also considering some new majors, including “Performance, Creative Arts and Curation”, “E-Business”, “Smart City and Digital Society” as well as “Health and Social Services Management”.  These majors and streams will meet the long-term development needs of Hong Kong, Mainland China and the region, providing students with broad-based academic knowledge as well as platforms to get in touch with the industry for their future career development.

 

On top of the above, the University will devote efforts to better promote liberal arts education in future.  “Under the support of The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, we will establish the Lingnan University Jockey Club Liberal Arts Summer Institute this year, which will strengthen and broaden the original summer programme and allow local and overseas students to experience Lingnan’s liberal arts education and campus life,” said President Cheng.

 

On the international level, the “Alliance of Asian Liberal Arts Universities”, established at the international conference on Asian liberal arts education last November, has requested Lingnan to be responsible for promoting the cooperation between its members, providing more cross-regional learning opportunities for students and cross-institutional research collaboration opportunities for professors, thus elevating the teaching and research standards as well as international recognition of its members.  To activate the collaboration between members, Lingnan will convene a Founding Members Meeting this year to discuss the directions and strategies of the Alliance.