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Editor’s Words
How can we combine in-class learning with students’ life outside the classroom? How can we return to the lost goal of nurturing “whole persons”? Perhaps the innovative “4-in-1” pedagogical model proposed by University of Macau Rector Wei Zhao, which consists of discipline-specific education, general education, research and internship education, and community and peer education, offers an answer to these questions. One of the components of the “4-in-1” model, community and peer education, is mainly achieved through a residential college (RC) system.
The RC system is generally acknowledged to be a good model. After studying the successful experiences of numerous overseas universities that already have an RC system in place, UM last year launched a pilot RC programme on the current campus, in order to accumulate relevant experience for the full implementation of the system on the new campus. In this issue of Umagazine, we discuss the history and benefits of the RC system, how an RC operates, as well as the overall effectiveness of the two pilot RCs at UM during the pilot year through interviews with the two RC heads.
We have also interviewed Dr. Vincent Ho, who lived in an RC at the Chinese University of Hong Kong during his university days, as well as two students who are now living in the two pilot RCs at UM. Hopefully, their accounts of first-hand RC experiences will give our readers a panoramic view of life in an RC. In another related article, UM’s Vice Rector Prof. Simon Ho provides some insightful views about the spirit and essence of an RC system.
It is our hope that the RC system can become a cornerstone of whole-person education at UM. Our goal is that through non-formal education in an RC setting, we can create a community which feels like a warm, second home to students and one in which students can learn and have fun at the same time. This is also a firm commitment of UM within the framework of the new “4-in-1” pedagogical model.
The e-version of UMAGAZINE (issue 4) has been launched and can be viewed at:
