Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Bilingual Interdisciplinary Chinese Studies (BICS)

Aims and Characteristics

Programme Aims 

The programme is designed to equip students with knowledge in Chinese culture as well as personal skills which they can apply in pursuing their career and in making contributions to the government, economy and society of Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland and the rest of the world. The general aim of the programme is to educate and train its students into individuals who are

1. morally aware and capable of self-improvement;
2. strongly committed to the welfare of society;
3. culturally informed and effective in communication skills;
4. respectful of the rule of law;
5. socially responsible; and
6. observant of business ethics and good business common-sense.

Characteristics

The design of the programme is informed by the conviction that one can best contribute to the betterment of one’s self, nation, the society one lives in, and fellow citizens of the world when one is versed in one’s native culture and can speak and write to share one’s understanding of that culture with other people while learning from theirs. The learning outcomes of the programme, therefore, are the manifestations of the application of the students’ cultural knowledge and language skills to practical use.
 

Students will be enriched culturally by the subjects offered in the core and the 5 specific areas, which enable them to interact effectively with people with a diversity of backgrounds. Some of the subjects are oriented more towards language, which make students competent communicators. The subjects from contributing departments, such as Hotel and Tourism Management, Applied Social Sciences, and Accounting and Finance, add a particularly practical bent to the curriculum, which heighten students’ ability in serving in the private and public sectors. Moreover, the scope of the programme is such that students will, having come to appreciate the diversity of cultures, become educated global citizens.
 

The programme adopts a variety of teaching methods, better to address the nature of the subjects and the learning outcomes the subjects are designed to deliver. In addition to lectures, tutorials, group discussions, presentation, projects and individual consultations, the language subjects, for example, make use of the language laboratory with its audio-visual resources. Similarly, subjects that involve the use of modern communication techniques utilise films and various types of information technology. A few subjects take students out on site visits, while others, such as WIE, afford opportunities for students to interact socially and professionally with people with different backgrounds in the working world. All these methods provide a rich learning environment that contributes to the realisation of the intended learning outcomes.