Between: Capital, Culture, and the Transformation of Hong Kong's Universities

Abstract

The public universities in Hong Kong are preparing for a momentous educational reform in the Fall of 2012 that will create four- instead of three-year degrees and add a strong General Education component to the curriculum. In this essay, I examine the trajectory of this reform from the point of view of an 'insider-outsider' Fulbright Scholar in General Education who, based at the University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong America Center (but working with colleagues across the system), consulted on the formation of interdisciplinary courses, interactive teaching, and administrative infrastructure for the launch of the reform. I examine the change in light of the flow of global capital, the development of the 'whole person' familiar to us from the discourse of the Liberal Arts, and of the demands of multinationals based in Hong Kong for a differently trained globalized workforce. The Hong Kong experiment is, I argue, an illuminating site to examine in order for us to better understand the emergence of the global university.