With just about a year to go before the implementation of the new four-year university curriculum in 2012, Lingnan University is poised to offer the best of liberal arts education under the new framework.

To do so, we are determined to keep our student number small, as we have done in the past decade. Therefore, by 2012, the number of students will be around 2,600. The size is ideal, and crucial, in fostering our unique Lingnan community spirit that encourages close interactions among students, teachers and administrators, a salient characteristic of liberal arts education at Lingnan.

The same scale will enable us to put in place measures conducive to making learning exciting. For example, we are on track to provide hostel accommodation to each and every undrgraduate student during their entire period of study by early 2013. The 100% hostel living will be an integral part and a hallmark of Lingnan's liberal arts education. On the other hand, with about 80 exchange partners all over the world, we expect to send half of our students to participate in exchange programmes by 2012. At the same time, we welcome the cultural diversity brought by incoming students from different countries worldwide.

On the academic front, the four-year curriculum will be enriched by substantially increased credits in our new "core curriculum" and language proficiency courses. Our faculty members are student-oriented, and are also accomplished researchers and experts in their fields. To learn more about our academic programmes and our faculty, you may visit our website.

All these new changes and facilities have but one objective: to provide an optimal environment for our students to realise their full potentials in Lingnan’s liberal arts context.

During the conference "The Coming-of-Age for Liberal Arts Education in 21st Century Asia-Pacific" hosted by Lingnan in2009, the merits of liberal arts education were once more affirmed by educators and graduates. Local and overseas speakers reminded us that liberal arts education shapes students’ outlook, encourages them to challenge convention, and prepares them to react responsibly to changing circumstances in our world. This is precisely what we have been trying to nurture our students at Lingnan.

I urge prospective students to carefully peruse our programmes in Faculties of Arts, Business and Social Sciences, find out more about our rich student life, and experience for yourself the liberal arts education at Lingnan.

CHAN Yuk-Shee