Facilitating Internationalisation of Higher Education through Innovative Teaching Approaches

By Michael Yu

A core component in internationalisation of higher education is the development of global perspectives in students so that they can cope with radical change in the ever-dynamic world. To explore innovative pedagogy that can better prepare students for the future, some of our community members participated in a one-day symposium held by the Center for Education Innovation at HKUST on 11 May 2018. Read on to ideate about how an active learning environment can contribute to building an international classroom.

Presentations in the concurrent sessions were showcases of interdisciplinary education on the course level designed to engage undergraduates from all disciplines. Speakers shared how they adopted experiential learning approach to enabling students to introduce their ideas and make an impact on society. In fact, students were found to have gained hands-on experience in both local and international contexts. Prof. Ying Chow’s course titled Design for Global Health and Dr. Winnie Leung’s course titled Global Product Development enabled students to go overseas where they had to design simple engineering products to help resolve real-world problems. Alternatively, without going overseas, students in Prof. Erwin Huang’s course titled Entrepreneurship 1001: Building Your own Future had the opportunity to develop a business hardware or service prototype while those in Prof. Ben Chan’s course titled the First Year Cornerstone Engineering Design Project Course applied their engineering knowledge and skills to design and develop an engineering prototype.

The second half of the day featured innovation showcases of several unconventional undergraduate programmes which enhanced students’ international learning experience. Capitalising on technological advancement, the two virtual collaboration projects, namely HKUST x Minerva Scholars Programme and Global Virtual Exchange Programme, provide students with the opportunity to exchange views with member institutions across the world. Prof. King-lau Chow also gave us an overview of how the Individualised Interdisciplinary Major (IIM) Programme was developed to nurture students with talents. IIM students are given the flexibility to make their own curricula and to select courses from all disciplines that suit them best along with ample guidance from their academic advisors throughout the years of study.

The symposium ended with some inspiring remarks from the speakers in the Blue-Sky Panel Discussion, with a major focus on the emerging dynamics, values and models that might transform the development of higher education in the future. While internationalisation has become a significant goal in institutional development, teachers are much welcome to explore and share their pedagogical innovations with us in the forthcoming occasions.

If this post-event summary interests you, perhaps you would like to read another reflective account. Please go to https://www.cetl.hku.hk/teaching-learning-cop/a-day-of-unlocking-innovative-learning-at-hkust/.