Project X: The project for learning excellence: A first-year, non-credit bearing, department-based, co-curricular course for students in social sciences

Abstract

Today’s higher educators in Hong Kong, China, have to deal with a set of concerns that differ from those tackled by their US and Australian counterparts. While the US and Australia confront the perpetual problems of student attrition and fluctuating graduation rates (see Australian Learning and Teaching Council, 2009; Horn, 2006; Howard & Jones, 2000; Schrader & Brown, 2008; Wylie, 2006), Hong Kong faces the converse of these problems. Graduation rates are high. Programs are competitive. Quotas are limited. Once undergraduate students begin to study in degree programs, they rarely drop out. Persistence rates are high. The opportunity to study at any one of the government-funded universities is so precious that students hardly dare to relinquish the chance, having been admitted by the university.