Hong Kong Polytechnic University Faculty of Humanities
| 人文學院 | |
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| Location | Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong |
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| Website | http://www.polyu.edu.hk/fh |
The Faculty of Humanities (FH, traditional Chinese:人文學院) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University(PolyU) is the youngest faculty of Humanities in Hong Kong. Ranked 30th in the Subject Ranking of “Arts and Humanities” according to the 2010 QS Asian University Ranks, the Faculty is a leading tertiary education provider in Asia in the fields of professional and multilingual communication and is, in addition, developing a strong programme in Chinese culture and multi-culturism. The Faculty is also recognized internationally through its strong academic links; including a joint research centre with Peking University, and exchange programmes with leading universities in the Chinese mainland, Europe, Japan and the Americas.
The Faculty serves as the University’s main provider of liberal education. It has three academic departments and three centres, offering programmes leading to Bachelor, Master and PhD degrees. It also teaches all core language courses, second foreign languages; and the majority of general education courses for other departments in the University. The total number of students enrolled in FH academic programmes solely is over 1,700 for 2009/10 academic year. All units in the Faculty work to help students to enhance their general education, to improve their language competence in both English and Chinese, to deepen their understanding in Chinese culture, as well as to progress and develop in different aspects of life.
The current Dean of the Faculty is Professor Chu-ren Huang, Chair Professor of Applied Chinese Language Studies. The current Associate Deans are Professor Hung-lam Chu, Chair Professor of Chinese Culture, Professor Christian Matthiessen, Chair Professor of English Language Studies, and Professor Tim Shi Dingxu, Professor of Linguistics.
Departments
Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies
The Department of Chinese, Translation and Interpretation was established in 1988. It was later renamed the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies (CBS) in 1996 and since then has expanded its areas of specializations.
CBS is one of the very few departments that endeavours to study the Chinese language and its interaction and cross influence with English in a bilingual society in order to address language issues in real life.
Within the Department there are 3 working units: the Centre for Translation Studies, the Chinese Language Centre and the Language Testing Unit. The Centre for Translation Studies (CTS) conducts academic and professional research in translation, and provides translation services. The Chinese Language Centre (CLC) offers training courses in written Chinese and Putonghua for PolyU students, other departments of PolyU, and external organizations, including the HKSAR Government. The Language Testing Unit (LTU) develops and runs Chinese proficiency tests, which include Putonghua Shuiping Kaoshi (PSK), Putonghua Shuiping Ceshi (PSC), and Shumian Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (SHSK).
CBS is equipped with facilities that provide professional training and self-learning to students. The Department has a Simultaneous Interpretation Laboratory for interpretation training, which is unique among all academic departments in Hong Kong. There are also two Language Laboratories in the Department where students can learn and practice interpreting at the audio-visual and computer workstations. The Department has also built a video studio and an audio studio for acoustic research and the production of multi-media teaching materials.
Department of Chinese Culture
Established in September 2008, the Department of Chinese Culture at PolyU is charged with the duty to educate its students, and to inform society at large, of knowledge of Chinese culture that can better their living in the age of globalisation and as good citizens in the communities of Hong Kong, where international trade flourishes and the gateway to the Chinese mainland begins.
The Department is unique among academic departments in Hong Kong in facilitating the learning of Chinese literature, history, philosophy, religion, and arts in tandem to show the characteristics and value of Chinese culture and its impact over times. It endeavors to shine the “language and culture enrich our society” brand of PolyU’s Faculty of Humanities.
To provide more students with sound knowledge of the roots and development of Chinese culture, and to nurture their ability to appreciate its forms and learn from its spirit, the Department offers not only General University Requirement subjects of China interest and a Minor programme in Chinese Culture for the undergraduate students but also a research postgraduate programme for the PhD degree as well as a Master of Arts (MA) degree programme in Chinese Culture (beginning September 2010). Coherence in curriculum and applicability in the learning are the universal concerns of these programmes.
Department of English
The primary mission of the Department of English is to provide applied English language studies for the professions, and it aims to be recognised internationally as a leading provider of undergraduate and postgraduate studies focusing on professional communication. Applied English language studies include not only the acquisition of the very high level of English language skills needed to succeed professionally, but also a thorough and critical understanding of the English language and a developed awareness of English communication in multicultural professional contexts.
Centres
General Education Centre
The Education Centre was established in May 1998. The Centre offers credit-based General Education subjects for undergraduate degree and sub-degree students of the University.
Academic Programmes
Keeping with the Faculty's emphasis on biliteracy and trilingualism, the two language departments offer a range of academic programmes at the postgraduate and undergraduate levels. Graduates of programmes can expect employment as administrative position in commerce, media, publishing, education, service-oriented, or the communication industry.
Research Postgraduate Programmes-Area of Focus
Department of Chinese & Bilingual Studies
- Bilingualism and Bilingual Education
- Chinese and Education: Acquisition, Assessment, and Chinese as a Second Language
- Language and Technology
- Linguistics of Chinese and other East Asian Languages
- Translation and Interpreting Studies
Department of Chinese Culture
- Chinese Intellectual History (AD 900-1800)
- Government and Society in Ming China
- Neo-Confucian Philosophy and Learning
Department of English
- Applied Linguistics
- English Language Studies
- Language Studies in Professional Contexts
- Sociolinguistics
- Systemic Functional Linguistics
Taught Postgraduate Programmes
Department of Chinese & Bilingual Studies
Department of English
Department of Chinese Culture
Undergraduate Programmes
Department of Chinese Bilingual Studies
Department of English
Minor Programmes
Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies
- Minor in Bilingual Corporate Communication
- Minor in Chinese
- Minor in Translation
- Minor in Chinese as a Second Language
- Minor in Japanese for Business Communication
- Minor in Korean (subject to the validation result)
Department of English
- Minor in English Language Studies for the Professions
- Minor in Intercultural Communication Studies for the Professions
Department of Chinese Culture
- Minor in Chinese Culture
Research Centres
The PolyU – Peking U Research Centre on Chinese Linguistics
The PolyU – Peking U Research Centre on Chinese Linguistics aims to carry out research in Chinese Linguistics, with an emphasis on the study and application of modern Chinese Language. The research areas of the Centre include syntax, semantics and pragmatics of modern Chinese, Chinese dialects, information processing in Chinese and corpus of modern Chinese, teaching Chinese as a foreign language, Chinese teaching materials for primary and secondary schools, standardization and modernization of modern Chinese Language.
Research Centre for Professional Communication in English (RCPCE)
The Research Centre for Professional Communication in English (RCPCE), established in January 2006 under the Department of English, is the first Research Centre of its kind in Hong Kong and marked an important milestone in promoting the further advancement of professional communication in the territory.
Members of the RCPCE are involved in research work in a range of specialist areas, including professional communicative competences, local grammars and phraseological variation, corpus-driven studies of profession- and industry-specific English, discourse processes and products of professionals, Information Technology Enabled Service (ITES), language needs and use in the professional workplace, and systemic functional grammar, most of which involve collaboration and partnership with practitioners and professionals. The RCPCE has built a number of profession-specific corpora, including the Hong Kong Financial Services Corpus and the Hong Kong Engineering Corpus, which can be examined with the built-in phraseological search program ConcGramOnlinec.
Centre for Translation Studies
The Centre for Translation Studies was established in 1989 with an endowment fund from the Wei Lun Foundation with the intention of promoting scholarly activities in the field of translation.
The Centre for Translation Study was designated by the Central Government's Ministry of Personnel (MOP) as the only authorized trainer for the China Aptitude Test for Translators and Interpreters (CATTI) （全國翻譯專業資格 ( 水平 ) 考試） in HKSAR in February 2007. Jointly launched by MOP and the China International Publishing Group, the CATTI is the most authoritative proficiency qualification test for translators and interpreters in the country. This qualification is also considered a pre-requisite for achieving professional status as a translator or interpreter on the Chinese mainland.
Erasmus Mundus Mobility Programme
The PolyU’s Faculty of Humanities (FH) has been granted by the European Commission in 2010, the first South East Asia’s Erasmus Mundus (EM) Mobility Programme (Lot 4, Action 2 - Strand 2).
EM is a flagship European Commission programme promoting international education. The successful application for the EM Mobility Grant is the joint effort of a consortium partnership consisting of nine higher education institutions across European and South East Asian countries/territories, with PolyU's Faculty of Humanities as the initiating institution and the coordinator in South East Asia, and Université de Provence as the overall coordinator and coordinator in Europe.
The grant of nearly €1.4 million will be allocated to successful applicants of the nine consortium partners in a project titled "MULTI – Multilingualism and Multiculturalism: Linguistic approaches to Transition and Identity". This project, which will span for about three years, aims to address the linguistic, cultural and technological aspects of multilingualism and to understand the impact of multilingualism in both European Union and South East Asia societies.
External links
- The Hong Kong Polytecnic University
- Faculty of Humanities website
- FH Erasmus Mundus Mobility Programme website
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