Get Real about Education in Asia: Residential Colleges (RC) of University of Macau Preamble

Transcription

1 Get Real about Education in Asia: Residential Colleges (RC) of University of Macau Preamble Recently, I attended the kick-off event of the Residential Colleges (RC) of University of Macau (UM.) The event was

2 held in one of the eight RCs known as Shiu Pong College.. I was informed that every entering freshman for 2014 and a significant fraction of the upperclassmen of the UM were assigned to one of the RCs. Each RC is headed by a Master. The eight Masters who live in their respective RCs with their family are all individuals with significant life and intellectual accomplishments. They nearly dine with students on a day-today basis. At the event I attended, all eight were present to discuss passionately the activities of their respective RCs. Why should I be impressed by this event? It is because as far as I know, this is a truly unusual if not a totally uncommon occurrence in higher education in a region, a la East Asia, which is rapidly growing in scale and gaining recognition globally. Ningbo Conference on Liberal Arts Education: A Watershed Moment for me This past April, I was invited by the organizers of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China s conference on Liberal Arts Education. I gave a talk entitled Mindset of the Soul: The Aim of Liberal Arts Education (LAE)! 心 靈 的 思 維 : 博 雅 教 育 的 目 標. Leadership of top institutions in Asia Pacific attended the conference. Besides the host university, other institutions included Peking University, Fudan University, Xian Jiaotong

3 University, Zhongshan University, Nanyang Technological University, Hsinchu Tsing Hua University, Yale University and Shantou University also attended the conference. I am certain this was one of the first of such conferences held in China, but I am sure it certainly is one of the first, if not the first. Interestingly, while the theme of the Ningbo conference was supposedly on LAE, it turns out that nearly all speakers took the opportunity to discuss how their respective institutions were pouring significant resources to pursue the concept of RC. Listening to all the talks at Ningbo made me aware that RC formation has now become an integral if not central dialogue of higher education in greater China. It was equally obvious that while the idea of RC is ubiquitous, to make it wall to wall in a campus such as what Cambridge and Oxford have done remain elusive for the participating institutions at the Ningbo conference. United States Residential College Status As is well known, in the United States, except for a few elite private universities such as Harvard and Yale and the many small liberal arts colleges, nearly all, if not all, public institutions, a la State Universities, would separate the teaching part of the undergraduates from the day-to-day living component. The teaching part was, and still is, conducted in

4 classrooms and/or laboratories while the living part is relegated to massive number of dormitories where students were, and still are, supposed to find their own life destiny. This was the case in the 20 th century, and there is no sign that it will change any time soon. United Kingdom Residential College System In UK, some of its top public universities, such as Cambridge and Oxford have for centuries practice what is known as Residential Colleges as the living component of their undergraduates. All students of these elite universities were assigned to a Residential College. For example, the world renowned Trinity College of Cambridge University, whose alumni included six British Prime Ministers, era transformational physicist Isaac Newton and philosopher Bertrand Russell, was founded nearly five centuries ago by Henry VIII in The fundamental idea of RC is to merge the day-to-day living of the permanent members of the university, namely the faculty from all disciplines with the students, also pursuing a plethora of disciplines. To allow communications between these two groups of individuals within the university to interact on a mutually respectful and beneficial manner. Often and maybe constantly discussions between these two groups are conducted as equals! No one can prove why Trinity Colleges could produce throughout its five centuries so many epoch

5 transforming individuals. However, having mutual intellectual stimulation in the RC setting surely must have contributed to it. University of Macau Residential College System Hence, base on the above summary of my understanding of the history of RCs in US, UK and now in Asia, the event I attended in University of Macau, by any measurement, was historical. What I saw was a massive stage for the creation of RCs in a university campus. In the new campus in Hengqin Island, the design of RCs infrastructure was specifically built into the architectural grand plan. Indeed, from the very start, the University of Macau instituted a complete system of RCs, with strategy and funding. It also elevated its administrative importance so that one of its Vice Rectors (Vice Presidents) is fully responsible for its comprehensive operation. The creation of live-in Master system is one of the most important aspects of the RCs. The quality of the Masters in all likelihood could define the meaning of a specific RC. For example, the Master of one of the eight is a good friend of mine, a world renowned educator and plasma physicist Professor Chuan-Shen Liu, whose impressive lifetime administrative career includes being Vice President for Research of the University of Maryland and President of National Central University in Taiwan. From his speech at the said event, he manifested his palpable interest in actively participating in the

6 life development of the next generation. The other seven Masters were no less exciting. As I mentioned earlier, to have all or nearly all undergraduates of a university to be experiencing RC through careful designs of a system is definitely something of a novelty in Asia Pacific. I was very elated to hear Rector (President) Wei Zhao in his opening speech saying the following:. the new campus, which is 20 times larger than the old one, provides an opportunity for UM to implement the RC system. And with the RC system in place, UM is now able to fully carry out peer and community education, which is one component of UM s unique 4-in-1 model of education. I believe that students can benefit from the RC system and the pluralist environment on the new campus. Epilogue The University of Macau Residential College System, for an optimist, may refer to it to be still in its fledgling stage. For a pessimist, it is still in its experimental stage, which means that one cannot rule out ultimate failure. For me, whether you are an optimist or a pessimist, there is no denying that the establishment of a full scale, what I refer to

7 as wall-to-wall Residential College System for University of Macau is a bold and courageous effort. It is perhaps intriguing to ask when Henry VIII established the Trinity College of Cambridge University, were the founders then so full of confidence that it would work? Surely there must be as many optimists then as there were pessimists. However, it is indeed remarkable that within a century, Trinity College was able to produce an Isaac Newton. Whether the University of Macau Residential College System will be a success or not can only be answered by the cliché time will tell. But judging from the Masters enthusiasm and qualifications, judging from the students enthusiastic participation in various activities, judging from University of Macau s top management determination to make sure that the System has all the right tools to succeed, I think the battle is half won. There is no question that embedded in University of Macau the phrase get real with education is now palpable! I cannot wait to see the Asian Isaac Newton to emerge from this experiment!