Faculty of Arts
The Faculty of Arts, as an internationally renowned and leading humanities faculty, strives to attract and nurture outstanding scholars and students from around the world through excellence and innovation in teaching and learning, research and knowledge exchange. As one of the flagship faculties of the University founded in 1912 when the University opened, the Faculty of Arts contributes to the advancement of knowledge about the arts and to the betterment of society. It nurtures leaders who are committed to making significant contributions to the development of Hong Kong, China, the region and the world at large.
The Faculty comprises four Schools and a Centre: the School of Chinese, School of English, School of Humanities, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, and Centre for Applied English Studies. The Centre of Buddhist Studies offers an undergraduate minor and postgraduate degrees through the Faculty.
Schools & Departments
School of Chinese
The School of Chinese has a long history of academic achievement. It was established at The University of Hong Kong in 1927, and it has since then remained committed to the promotion of Chinese heritage and the integration of Chinese and Western scholarship. We have become a leading international centre for research and education in Chinese language, literature, history, and translation. At present, the School of Chinese consists of three units: the School Proper, the Chinese Language Enhancement Programme (CLEP), and the Chinese Language Centre (CLC), which are all focused on the common mission of providing advanced Chinese education that is informed by cutting-edge research. We remain the only unit within the University where the medium of instruction is Chinese, including both Putonghua and Cantonese.
School of English
The School of English engages in research and provides instruction at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in literary and cultural studies, English linguistics and Language and Communication. Under the BA curriculum we offer major and minor programmes in English Studies. The School also contributes to the teaching of the BA&BEd in Language Education (English) and the BA&LLB double degree programmes. We provide supervision for research postgraduate degrees (M.Phil. and Ph.D.) and also offer three taught postgraduate programmes, a Master of Arts in English Studies, a Master of Arts in Creative Communications and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in English.
School of Humanities
The School of Humanities comprises of seven distinct programmes: Philosophy, Linguistics, History, Comparative Literature, Art History, Music, and Gender Studies. Each programme is committed to providing students with a solid grounding in their own discipline, as well as encourage interdisciplinary engagement within the School and beyond. Our School is devoted to critical and creative thought through the study of what makes us uniquely human. The way we think and communicate, the objects we make and enjoy, our investment in events and institutions, our cultural practices and social values – all these things constitute the subject of our teaching and research.
School of Modern Languages and Cultures
The School of Modern Languages and Cultures offers six area studies concentrations and eleven languages. We are by nature interdisciplinary and very diverse in terms of cultural and intellectual backgrounds. In our teaching and research, we explore different regions around the world in a holistic manner. By bringing together the study of language and culture, literature and film, history and politics, economics and philosophy we analyse and make sense of the six global regions we cover: Africa, the Americas, China, Europe, Japan and Korea.
Centre for Applied English Studies
The Centre for Applied English Studies’ mission is to improve the academic literacy skills of undergraduate and postgraduate students at The University of Hong Kong. We run compulsory and elective undergraduate and postgraduate academic literacy courses for UGC-funded students. We provide UGC-funded students one-to-one language support services to develop a range of communication skills. We also run a Masters in Applied Linguistics and co-run a Masters in TESOL with the Faculty of Education. To support the wider HKU community, we offer workshops and courses for taught-postgraduate students and teach English courses for University of Hong Kong administration staff. We also supervise PhD students in the field of Applied Linguistics.
Centre of Buddhist Studies
The Centre of Buddhist Studies of The University of Hong Kong was established in September 2000 to promote the study of and research into all aspects of Buddhism and its relevance to the world of today. It is the first of its kind to be set up in Hong Kong. Since 2002, the Centre has been offering a broad range of Buddhist studies at postgraduate research (MPhil/PhD), Master and undergraduate levels. The degrees are awarded through the Faculty of Arts. Our courses covering social application, Indian Buddhism, Chinese Mahayana, Buddhist Canonical languages and others are taught by a team of renowned Buddhist scholars from around the world.
Our People
David M. Pomfret is Professor of History and Dean of Arts. His research focuses on the history of childhood and youth, which he has explored in Europe and its empires through a comparative, trans-national lens. He joined the University of Hong Kong in September 2001 and has extensive administrative experience, having previously served as an Associate Dean of Arts, Convenor of the Humanities Area of Inquiry of the Common Core Curriculum, Chair of the Department of History and Head of the School of Humanities. David has also won recognition for his teaching, receiving Hong Kong’s highest award, the UGC Teaching Excellence Award, as well as HKU’s own Teaching Excellence Award.
