Media

HKU Faculty of Science responds to the media about cancellation of two Science majors

14 Mar 2017

 

Teaching quality and the experience of our students is of the utmost importance to the Faculty of Science. To ensure that our curriculum addresses the needs of our students we constantly revise our curriculum. As part of this routine process the Astronomy major and Mathematics/ Physics major will be closed to new entrants from 2018/19. Reviewing students’ needs is part of the normal process of programme development in any universities. In our past curriculum review exercises, we also closed some science majors – Materials Science (2009), Microbiology (2013) and brought in other emerging ones such as Geology (2012) and Decision Analytics (2015). The decisions about what majors to launch and which to retire are basically based on student needs and demand, to ensure the best possible learning experience for them. This routine exercise helps us place effort and resources where they are best spent and to achieve a mix of majors with the right balance for our students.

This will affect neither the Physics nor the Mathematics major, but only the combined Mathematics/Physics major that duplicates with our current double major in Physics and Mathematics. In our existing curriculum, elite students interested in the two areas could now do this double major or take them in a major/ minor combination. With this double major, they would not miss a single course covered in the old combined major. They could also augment their learning opportunities and arrange their study in the two disciplines in a more flexible and intensive way. Thus the closing of this major is in fact a change of logistics for course delivery. Regarding the Astronomy Major, we have been monitoring its development since its introduction in 2008. Throughout the years, we can see this major is not popular with our students. Despite the closing of this major, we want to reiterate that students can still choose Astronomy as a minor or take Astronomy courses as electives as part of a Physics major. Only very small numbers of students have chosen either of these majors in the last few years. We are taking this opportunity to focus on what our students are choosing to take and working to ensure the best possible experience for students coming to the Faculty. No staff cuts are planned with this curriculum change.

As the cancellation of majors will only be effective from the cohort of 2018/19, all current students will be unaffected as indeed will any currently applying to attend HKU next year. When this new curriculum becomes effective, we will have 14 majors and 17 minors and remain as one of the most comprehensive and diverse curricula in the local community.  We have the highest quality students of any Science Faculty in Hong Kong and value their trust in us to provide them with the top quality, world class education that they deserve. The current process is designed to ensure we continue doing this for the next period of time. We always put students in our top priority when reviewing our curriculum and will continue to do so.

For media enquiry, please contact Ms Cindy Chan, Senior Communication Manager of Faculty of Science, on 3917-5286/ 6703-0212 or by email at cindycst@hku.hk.