Many higher education institutions around the world have come to realize that classroom education and education outside the classroom should complement each other, that both professional expertise (hard skills) and liberal arts general education (soft skills) are indispensable in nurturing university students in this new era, and that a new mode of education requires the perfect balance.

That’s why renowned universities attach great importance to student affairs via living and learning experiences. The educational function of student affairs is continuously expanding as the University of Macau (UM) attaches great importance to education outside the classroom. In 2008 after Prof. Wei Zhao took office as the rector, UM launched a new “4-in-1” education model, which aims to implement whole person education through the combination of discipline-specific education, general education, research and internship education, and community and peer education. Such an education model not only strengthens students’ hard skills, but also helps students to develop – through community and peer education anchored in a residential college (RC) system – soft skills such as optimism, team spirit, effective communication, sense of responsibility, empathy, ability to exercise sound moral judgment, and lifelong learning, etc..

The rapid development of UM is placing higher demands on student affairs work. After the new campus on Hengqin Island is put into use, an RC system will be fully implemented. This inevitably requires the training of a large number of outstanding student affairs professionals. Therefore, UM  recently created two senior positions responsible for student affairs: Vice Rector for Student Affairs, and Dean of Students. The former is held by Prof. Haydn Chen, who has rich experience in higher education management, and the latter is held by Dr. Peter Yu, who has over twenty years of experience in student affairs. Additionally, in May 2012 UM established Asia’s first-ever Macau Student Affairs Institute, and invited top-notch student affairs and education experts from across the globe to provide an advanced training course. In this issue of umagazine, we invited Prof. Haydn Chen and Dr. Peter Yu to discuss from different perspectives how UM plans to help students acquire and improve soft skills, as well as how UM will enhance student management. We also interviewed some participants of the training course to learn what new understanding of student affairs they have gained from the course.

Haydn Chen: Character Is More Important

Conventional classroom education, which focuses on imparting specialty knowledge, tends to be valued more readily, partly because knowledge is quantifiable and is aimed at educating students in specific skills. Education outside the classroom in the domain of general or whole person education, however, is a totally different matter, in that it is open-ended, requires more time and space, deals with a diverse range of issues, and has no fixed teaching methods or textbooks. The lack of a textbook and examinations makes it difficult to quantify and measure the outcome of this kind of education. But the tricky thing is that skills which normally can only be acquired through such education are greatly valued by society. For instance, many multinational companies hiring interns look for communication skills, analytical and problem-solving ability, interpersonal effectiveness, team spirit, a global mindset, self-education and motivation, mood management, and leadership potential.

After the new campus is put into use next year, between eight and twelve RCs will be established, forming the largest RC system in Asia. When that happens, students will be able to enjoy a richer campus life. The RC system will be a perfect complement to the faculty system. Each RC will be inhabited by approximately five hundred people. Students of different majors, years of study and ethnicity will live and learn together and from one another. Living and dining together in the same RCs will give staff and students ample opportunities to interact and make each RC into a multi-disciplinary learning community. What’s Prof. Haydn Chen’s opinion on soft skills acquisition and the RC system to be implemented on the new UM campus in the near future? And what plans does he have in these two areas?

J: Journalist
C: Prof. Haydn Chen

J:  What kinds of people are most needed in the twenty-first century? How can UM meet the needs of the developing society?

C:  People most needed by the twenty-first century should possess the following skills and traits: (1) excellent learning ability, (2) passion for service, (3) a global mindset, (4) practical ability, (5) multifaceted intelligence, (6) internalised liberal arts knowledge and caring about humanity, and (7) a positive outlook on life. Nowadays we often hear complaints about university students’ poor attitude as well as their lack of passion, action, cooperativeness and stress-handling skills. These actually have little to do with which major subject they chose to study at college. These are personality traits, and the development of these traits is exactly the purpose of liberal arts education. In the last century, universities tended to focus on imparting professional expertise, with greater emphasis on science subjects than on the humanities, with priority on training specialists instead of generalists. But liberal arts education aims to help every student become an independent agent of free will rather than a slave to his knowledge, because a person full of knowledge in his head without independent analysis of the knowledge is nothing more than a robot. Towards the end of the twentieth century, universities came to realise that education should be learning-outcome-based, and so they began to attach more importance to multi-disciplinary education that stresses a balance between science subjects and the humanities. This is at the core of education in the twenty-first century. The “4-in-1” education model implemented at UM aims, first and foremost, to help students become people of action, people with good character traits and values and compassion, and people who can contribute to a team. Only then can they truly make valuable contributions to society.  

J: What role does student affairs work play in helping students develop soft skills?

C:  The modern view of higher education stresses integrated, multi-disciplinary education, which includes liberal arts education (or soft skills education) in addition to discipline-specific (hard skills) education. And in this respect, the Student Affairs Office (SAO) can and should play an important role. SAO should go beyond its service function and become a teaching unit or even a platform for soft skills acquisition. All SAO colleagues have a responsibility to educate students. We have set our goals in terms of helping students develop soft skills, and with that goal in mind, we will design some core capability indices. By way of various courses and activities, UM will help students reach those core indices.


J:  Why is character education important for students?

C:  People with professional expertise but without good character can cause great disasters to the world. For example, a lawyer who flouts laws, a businessman with no moral scruples. Although expertise and character are both very important, I think the latter is more important from the point of view of bringing benefits to humankind. Character traits have to do with internalised liberal arts knowledge and caring about humanity, and this is beyond the realm of specialty knowledge acquisition. So how do we cultivate these character traits? The answer is through education that starts at an early age. A person who likes to explore and experiment is bound to have a broader perspective. Therefore, it is very important for universities to help students to develop initiative to learn, and equip them with various soft skills.  We need to help students develop various skills and traits, including endurance, cooperation, observance of rules, honesty, resilience against setbacks, a caring heart, communication skills, good values, team spirit, and self-discipline. These soft skills — and character education that is essential for developing these skills — are almost impossible to obtain purely from classroom education. They have to be slowly acquired from multi-disciplinary learning outside the classroom.


J:  What role does the RC system play in helping students internalise liberal arts knowledge and foster caring about humanity?

C:  Experience of Western universities, whether colleges at Oxford and Cambridge or colleges of liberal arts education in the United States, shows that learning through living is at the core of their education philosophy. After the new campus is put into use, UM will fully implement an RC system, which will embody the philosophy of liberal arts education — respect for academic freedom and encouragement of mutually beneficial teacher-student interaction through living together. This kind of RC life is a vehicle for instilling in students the right set of attitudes towards life and studies. It helps students to internalise liberal arts knowledge and to foster a caring heart. It also teaches students to use their initiative to learn, to solve problems proactively, to communicate effectively, and to be kind to others. Only through implementing RC-based learning through living and practice can we truly realise the goal of whole person education.

J:  How does UM help students to make full use of their time outside the classroom to strengthen soft skills?

C:  Let’s say students attend classes five days a week, if we minus the time they spend preparing for and attending classes, sleeping and eating, they’ve only got about sixty-eight hours left at their disposal. And students may not use these hours in a well-planned way; they may spend it net-surfing, doing part-time jobs and sports, hanging out with friends, etc. The education philosophy of UM’s “4-in-1” education model is to let SAO and each RC use these ten hours or so per week to organise well-designed courses, lectures and other activities to help students improve soft skills. The essence of liberal arts education is not the “chalk and talk” way of teaching, but rather lies in interaction. RCs are a pioneering move for UM. We will create more opportunities for students and make them truly want to participate. Living in an RC is different from living in a traditional dormitory. It’s a wonderful place to learn. It is also a good vehicle for implementing the “4-in-1” education model and for advancing whole person education.


                                                                         (The English is a translation of the interview conducted in Chinese)

Prof. Haydn Chen is a world-renowned expert on materials science. He received his PhD degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University. He then taught in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and became a tenured full professor there. He was administrative fellow of the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs at UIUC, and head of the Department of Physics and Materials Science and chair professor of materials science at the City University of Hong Kong. In 2004 he took office as president of Tunghai University, Taiwan. During his tenure as the president of Tunghai University, he actively promoted liberal arts education. He founded a liberal arts college to implement character education, which allowed Tunghai University to achieve extraordinary results in various areas, including student recruitment, teaching and research. In August 2012 he assumed office as the first vice rector for student affairs at UM.

Peter Yu: Every moment is a teachable moment

In terms of division of work, classroom education is mainly the responsibility of academic staff from various faculties, and education outside the classroom is mainly led by student affairs colleagues. In the West, student affairs professionals are referred to as “student affairs educators”, which Dr. Yu thinks is very reasonable. He often says to his co-workers: “Every moment is a teachable moment, that’s why we must turn every student activity and every interaction with students into a chance for education. Our first job is to assist teaching, and our second job is to carry out our own teaching outside the classroom to help students develop extracurricular skills.”

Only three months into his new job at UM, Dr. Yu has already noticed many good things about student affairs work at UM. “Many UM students have part-time jobs. Different people have different opinions about that. But personally I think it’s a good opportunity for students to learn more about society, to increase work experience, and to realise their individual value,” comments Dr. Yu.  “SAO colleagues are young, energetic, down-to-earth and willing to workhard. They have organised many great activities, such as the recent Tea with Professors, which aimed to help bring teachers and students closer. The Peer Support Programme is another successful example. It has been going on for ten years now. This programme boosts students’ self-confidence, improves their interpersonal skills, helps them to cultivate a positive attitude, teaches them to support each other, and creates a caring atmosphere on campus.”

When asked what kind of role student affairs work should play in a university, Dr. Yu pointed out that SAO is mainly responsible for handling three kinds of relationships. The first is the relationship between the university and the students, in which SAO helps to establish an interaction mechanism and to create a concerted, harmonious campus culture. The second kind is the relationship between students, in which SAO helps to promote mutual support and trust. The third is establishing rules and regulations and handling individual cases on behalf of the university – management of students, in other words.

Dr. Yu stresses that management of students should follow the principle of “learning from past lessons to avoid future mistakes with the aim of educating”. He cites a recent case of a student who was considered a “troublemaker” and who has had many unpleasant exchanges with SAO colleagues. Dr. Yu sat the student down for a long talk to understand the cause, and he objectively walked the student through his feelings. After the talk, the student realised the excitable and impulsive side of his personality, and sent a letter of apology to Dr. Yu. Dr. Yu stresses that when handling student cases, one should refrain from just handing a letter notifying the student concerned of the disciplinary sanction, without any follow-up actions. “We should always bear in mind that a university is an educational institution, so we should talk to the student face to face and help him or her to understand the seriousness and consequences of the action,” says Dr. Yu. “We should also explain how the disciplinary sanction is really just a means of educating. Only then will the student be willing to accept the punishment, and only then will the purpose of educating be achieved.” Dr. Yu says he plans to propose adding “community service” as a form of disciplinary sanction. “Our purpose is to educate, not to punish,” he says. SAO hopes to encourage UM students to participate more in community service, because community service helps cultivate benevolence, and can also improve their leadership skills through event organisation.

Top universities overseas have long regarded student affairs as an area of expertise, and have invested considerable energy and resources in this area. In comparison, UM is a late starter and still has room to improve in terms of staff experience and professional training. Dr. Yu says that the more than thirty SAO colleagues have an average of three years of experience in student affairs, which is less than their counterparts at top universities overseas. But Dr. Yu also points out UM enjoys the advantage of top-down support for student affairs.  “Many universities in the West began to slash funding, especially after the U.S. entered an economic recession, and student affairs took a hard hit,” remarks Dr. Yu. “But UM is still very generous in funding, which should make UM the envy of many overseas universities.”

Given the increased size and facilities on the new campus, it’s foreseeable that student affairs work will have greater room for development. Therefore, SAO will carry out internal staff training to prepare for new challenges that may arise in the future.

Dr. Peter Yu completed his undergraduate studies in English Literature at Shanghai Normal University. He received his master’s degree in linguistics from the University of Exeter, United Kingdom, and his PhD degree in International and Comparative Education from the University of Virginia, United States. After graduation he successively served as assistant dean of students and associate dean of students at the University of Virginia. Dr. Yu has worked in student affairs management positions for more than ten years in the United States. He also has rich experience in international higher education development and student affairs. He has ten years of teaching experience in both China and the U.S. In July 2012 he assumed office as the first dean of students at UM.

 

Participants: Student affairs work should help students achieve well-rounded development

It won’t be long before UM moves to the new campus and fully implements the RC system. It is foreseeable that a large number of outstanding student affairs professionals will be needed. So how should UM get ready for that? This May UM established the Macau Student Affairs Institute to offer an advanced course in student affairs, carefully designed by Prof. Susan Komives at the University of Maryland. The course was Asia’s most comprehensive and systematic course in student affairs in recent years. It consisted of five parts, covering all key aspects of student affairs. It was taught by seven experts and scholars invited from the U.S.. They were Dr. Gregory S. Blimling, vice president for student affairs at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; Dr. Gwendolyn Dungy, executive director of NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education; Prof. Robert Reason from Iowa State University; Dr. Larry Roper, vice provost for student affairs at Oregon State University; Prof. Karen Inkelas from the University of Virginia; Dr. John Schuh, distinguished professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Iowa State University; and Prof. Marilee Bresciani from San Diego State University. Prof. Haydn Chen, who was then president of Tunghai University, Taiwan; Dr. Zhang Yan, vice president of Peking University; Dr. Jonathan Holloway, professor of history and master of Calhoun College at Yale University; and Dr. Qi Xiaoping, head of the student affairs office at Sun Yat-sen University were also invited to share their experience in student affairs and residential colleges with participants.

The fifty-nine participants of the training course came from higher education institutions from Macao, Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China. Most of them are currently working in student-affairs-related positions. Elvo Sou, head of the Student Counselling and Development Section at UM, was one of the participants. He thinks the ten-day course has helped him lay a solid theoretical and practical foundation. Elvo especially identifies with the concept of “Positive Restlessness” learned from the course. “We face many challenges in organising student activities,” says Elvo. “And if we don’t have ‘Positive Restlessness’, it would be very difficult to meet the needs of the students and the developing university. Not only does ‘Positive Restlessness’ apply to our work at Student Affairs, it also applies to our students. We expect them to learn and develop, especially in terms of soft skills such as team spirit and caring about humanity. We tell them our expectations and provide the necessary support to make their learning and development possible. Student Affairs has become a very strategic avenue to cultivate students’ whole person development.”

Another participant, Claire Ouyang, is a PhD candidate of the Faculty of Education. She says that the course has helped her to further integrate theories of student development as well as to better understand the role of student affairs in higher education institutions, and more importantly, it has reinforced her determination to pursue a career related to student development after graduation.  “In order to help students to establish themselves in society, it’s important for student affairs professionals to help them know more about themselves and achieve well-rounded development. In this process, teachers and student affairs staff should both play a role,” says Ouyang.

Kevin, a resident fellow at UM’s East Asia College, also participated. He says what left the deepest impression on him was the concept introduced by one course instructor that all student affairs staff, including administrative staff, are educators. “This concept is very encouraging,” says Kevin. “It changes the way many UM colleagues perceive their jobs and helps them realise that working in student affairs is actually very meaningful.” Kevin says that every UM colleague has the chance to deal with students, regardless of their positions, and one simply can’t predict how today’s interaction is going to affect the students in the future. “You never know. Your one encounter with the student could have the biggest impact on him or her twenty or thirty years after graduation, and that’s what UM hopes could happen with the RC system.” says Kevin. 

Today’s world is fast-changing and complicated. Long gone are the days when people could rely on the education they received in the classroom to sustain and nourish them for the rest of their lives. University education has ceased to simply fulfill the function of vocational education or skills training, and it is becoming increasingly common for university graduates to work in professions not related to their major area of study. In addition to imparting knowledge, both in and outside the students’ chosen fields of study, and teaching them to discover and create knowledge, modern higher education also attaches great importance to helping students cultivate a full range of qualities, such as initiative to pursue lifelong learning, willingness to explore and innovate, a noble character, and passion for life. This is also the most important core value of modern higher education.

With UM soon to move to a new campus that is twenty times larger than the current one, we find ourselves at a new beginning. We believe that the better facilities on the new campus and the advanced systems and education philosophy will accelerate the implementation of the “4-in-1” education model, which will in turn help the students to cultivate soft and hard skills. The RCs, in particular, will play a tremendous role in helping students to cultivate good character, personality and team spirit. The new mode of teaching and students management will certainly spur other higher education institutions in Macao and the neighboring regions to contemplate on their own development.