Profile of the Ideal Lingnan Graduate

Liberal arts education at Lingnan University aims to instil a sense of civic duty in our students and to cultivate skills, competences and sensibilities that enable graduates to pursue their goals in a rapidly changing social, cultural and economic environment.  Lingnan graduates will have breadth and depth of vision, the desire and capacity for public service, an awareness of the complexities that characterise enduring human dilemmas, and, accordingly, maturity of judgement.  Excellent as leaders and employees, Lingnan graduates will be the beneficiaries of a multi-dimensional approach to learning. 

For undergraduate programmes, the ideal Lingnan graduate will:

•  have strong oral and written language proficiency in both English and Chinese (Putonghua as well as Cantonese), together with excellent communication and interpersonal skills;
•  be committed to involvement in and service to the community;
•  have an international outlook and be able to understand problems from different cultural perspectives;
•  have a secure grounding in his or her chosen academic field(s) and an awareness of possible cross-disciplinary applications;
•  possess essential generic research-related skills, including knowledge of information technology;
•  have strong analytic skills and a capacity for independent critical thinking;
•  be imaginative and possess problem-solving capabilities;
•  be capable of imaginative and sound planning;
•  have excellent cooperative skills based on tolerance, integrity, civility and a sense of personal responsibility; and
•  have both the capacity and the desire for life-long learning.

For research postgraduate programmes, Lingnan graduates are expected to:

•  have developed research and analytical skills;
•  have developed systematic understanding of a field or fields of knowledge; possess the ability critically to assess intellectual claims, theories and arguments; be able to contribute original insights to a given field or fields of knowledge; and
•  have produced a thesis that contributes to the knowledge and understanding of the field of learning within which the subject of the thesis falls – the MPhil thesis shall represent a worthwhile contribution while the PhD thesis shall represent a substantial original contribution.

For taught postgraduate programmes, Lingnan graduates are expected to:

•  have up-to-date, in-depth theoretical and practical knowledge of a specific discipline area, as well as a broad range of general knowledge;
•  be able to apply knowledge at an advanced level in professional contexts or to solve problems;
•  be able to think critically and creatively; and
•  have the ability to articulate ideas clearly and coherently both in written and oral forms of a variety of information. 

as at 4 May 2009