Introduction


In 1888, 14 years into the reign of Qing Dynasty's Emperor Guangxu, the American Presbyterian Church set up a school in Guangzhou known as the Christian College in China. Its first intake of just 30 students began attending lessons there on March 28 the same year. This was the forerunner of Lingnan University, which was re-established in Hong Kong 40 years ago.

Following the closure of Lingnan University in Guangzhou, its alumni began to nurture a common goal – to re-establish it in a new location. In September 1967, Lingnan alumni in the city set up the Lingnan College Co Ltd, as a first step towards its re-establishment. To promote this cause further, Lingnan's educational enterprise in Hong Kong, Lingnan College Co Ltd, merged with Lingnan Secondary School Co Ltd to form the Lingnan Education Organization Co Ltd.

In the following ten years, Lingnan alumni helped build the College into a highly regarded institution, thereby laying solid foundations for its future. It continued to grow strongly as it entered its second decade. In December 1987, the United Kingdom Council for National Academic Awards conducted a comprehensive institutional review on Lingnan. The Council highly commended the College for its rapid development over the years, and concluded that Lingnan's academic level was on par with institutions under the aegis of the University and Polytechnic Grants Committee (UPGC).

Encouraged by this, Lingnan College stopped offering two-year programmes and asked the government to increase its subvention to a level that would enable it to develop honours diploma programmes. This request was approved in 1988, and additional funds were provided to employ teachers and administrative staff, as well as to establish facilities required by the new programmes. At this time, the government was about to make Lingnan a member of the UPGC, which would enable it to confer degrees. This was helped by a review of the College by the Hong Kong Council for Academic Accreditation in 1991. Lingnan was deemed qualified to offer degree programmes. The government accepted the members' proposal, and Lingnan was made a degree-conferring institution under the UPGC in the same year. To facilitate its future expansion, Lingnan moved to a new campus in Tuen Mun in 1995 and launched Master of Philosophy programmes. In 1998, it was given self-accrediting status; and in 1999 it was renamed Lingnan University. The University continued to grow as it entered the 21st century, adding postgraduate programmes and establishing a school of continuing education and a community college, thereby offering quality education to Hong Kong and the region.

Lingnan University offers full-time undergraduate programmes leading to honours degrees. These programmes are grouped under three categories, viz. Arts, Business and Social Sciences. To accomplish Lingnan’s mission of providing its students with an education in the liberal arts tradition, all undergraduate programmes feature a distinctive style of integrated and balanced curriculum. Apart from courses in the respective disciplines, the General Education Programme and Chinese and English languages are essential components in each curriculum.

(Source: Lingnan University)