GECW1010, normally taken in Y1T1, is a key component of the first-year experience introducing students to university learning. The expected learning outcomes are:

• an understanding of the origin, purposes and values of universities (K)
• an appreciation of the diversity of higher-education systems around the world, and of the changing higher-education scene in China (K)
• an understanding of the higher-education system in Hong Kong and of CUHK in particular, including values, constraints, debates (K)
• the attitude of reflecting upon university values, university life and the student’s own role in university (V)
• the ability to consider and debate various options and choices facing the higher-education system in Hong Kong and facing CUHK in particular, and through this example, the habit of engaging in policy discussions on the basis of evidence and in the knowledge of constraints (V)
• awareness of the wider arena in which this university and its members play their parts, at the crossroads between tradition and modernity, and at the interface between China and the West in the global order (K, V)
• an appreciation of some of the wider issues in society, and the habit of engagement with these issues (K, V)
• an appreciation of plurality of values, and tolerance and respect for different values, gained through engagement with some of these issues (V)
• the skills important to university education, especially the ability to construct and present cogent arguments in a written form, and in oral presentations (S)
• the skills of working together in a team (S)

K = knowledge; S = skill; V = value