Our four-year undergraduate curriculum has been designed to prepare students with abilities/ attributes that will prepare graduates to become "preferred leaders" for the professions and responsible global citizens in the 21st century. The main features of our curriculum can be grouped into two categories:
Preparing Students for Success in Their Chosen Professions
Nurturing Students into All-Round Global Citizens
I. Preparing Students for Success in Their Chosen Professions
Academic and Application Orientation
All of our programmes are thoughtfully designed, meeting the needs of industries, the professions and the community, with an appropriate balance of theory and practice in the curriculum. Most of our academic programmes are accredited by relevant statutory or professional bodies, both local and overseas.
Strengthened Language and Communications Component
We aim to nurture our students to become effective communicators, both biliterate and trilingual (English and Chinese, including Putonghua). In addition to the English and Chinese language subjects in the core (General University Requirements) curriculum, extensive reading and writing components with adequate support from the teaching team are introduced to the general education programme and the discipline-specific curriculum.
Mandatory Work-Integrated Education (WIE)
All PolyU full-time undergraduate students are required to complete a mandatory WIE component to gain real-life experience in the actual workplace before graduation. This will enable our students to deepen their understanding of industries and professions, to apply classroom learning in real-life situation, and to develop their workplace skills.
Enrich Students' Experience with Industries and the Professions
With our strong and long-standing relationship with industries and the professions, we are able to organise many "out-of-classroom" learning activities (e.g. mentorship programme, talks by experts from various disciplines, site visits and study tours, industry-based student projects, etc.) that bring students closer to real-life professional practice. This relationship has also further stepped up collaboration between the University and industries in research, high-level consultancy projects and knowledge transfer activities which in turn support the application orientation of our academic programmes.
Capstone Project
In all of our programmes, we include a capstone project or thesis to enable students to consolidate their learning experience accumulated over the entire undergraduate study to deal with or solve a complex problem related to their profession/discipline. This will better prepare our students for professional practice or further studies.
Developing Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Problem-Solving Skills
We place a strong emphasis on nurturing students' entrepreneurial and innovative spirit, as well as critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, and offer a wide range of curricular and co-curricular activities. Two new mandatory components, “AI and Data Analytics” and “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” will be included in the General University Requirements (GUR) of the undergraduate curriculum to help students develop these skills.
II. Nurturing Students into All-Round Global Citizens
Globally-Oriented Education
PolyU has long been committed to internationalisation of its curriculum, staffing and student bodies. We provide students with global learning experience through our established Student Exchange Programme, WIE Offshore Placement Scheme, and General University Requirements (Cluster Area Requirements and Service-Learning) subjects offered overseas and in Mainland China. In 2019/20, over 830 PolyU students went on exchange at one of PolyU’s 238 exchange partner institutions. Students also participated in offshore internships worldwide and in the mainland.
Under PolyU's academic collaboration agreements with over 390 institutions spanning 42 countries and regions, our faculty and staff have been actively engaged in academic, joint degree and research collaboration initiatives. These initiatives further enhance the international exposure of our students and staff.
Broadening Students' Perspectives
We provide the General University Requirements to broaden students' horizons beyond their chosen professions. Students will study subjects of their own choice under four Cluster Areas that represent different domains of knowledge and methods of enquiry. They are:
Leadership and Intra-Personal Development
To prepare our students to become "leaders of tomorrow" and nurture their strong sense of social responsibility, we offer to all students a General University Requirements subject or Discipline-Specific Requirements subject on "Leadership Education and Development". The subject attempt to nurture students to be competent and ethic leaders. To promote law abidance qualities in future leaders, the related subjects cover materials on modern Chinese history, the Constitution, the Basic Law and the National Security Law. Students will be provided opportunities to reflect on various related issues within the context of leadership development.
Cultivating a Heart to Serve
We aim to develop our students into educated global citizens with a heart to serve. All our students are required to take a credit-bearing subject on Service-Learning before graduation so that they can apply their knowledge to serve the people in need. They will:
Promoting a Healthy Lifestyle
Healthy lifestyle is the platform for all-round development. Our students will complete a non-credit-bearing programme in healthy lifestyle. The programme will enable students to: