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Making a difference in the lives of others and contributing your skills and knowledge for a good cause, no matter big or small, are simply the right thing to do. The Hong Kong Project (HKP) is a new university-wide elite capstone course, enabling students to venture through the entire journey from understanding social issues to devising practical plans for implementation.  The HKP will run as a pilot project for two academic years (2023-24 and 2025-26).

What is the Hong Kong Project (HKP)?

  • A 6-credit one-semester course
  • Open to final-year undergraduate students from all disciplines
  • Students shall work together in groups of four to six from different Faculties to develop solutions to real-life problems faced by an organisation or corporation in Hong Kong
  • An academic supervisor for each group to help students apply their academic knowledge to the project.
The HKP will enable students to:
  • work with community partners, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and business corporations, on an elite, interdisciplinary and collaborative group project
  • learn from coaching by and discussions with industry experts and academic supervisors
  • explore key social issues and develop innovative solutions to real-world problems
  • develop skills fit for future-ready graduates, including self-initiative, teamwork, communication, project management, leadership, innovation and research skills.

Who is eligible to apply?

  • Students in their final year of study to undertake HKP in the First/Second Semesters, with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above
  • Students about to enter their final year of study may undertake HKP in Summer Semester, a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above
[Special permission from Heads of Department/School or Faculty Deans may be given in exceptional circumstances.]

How to form groups?

Students will participate in groups of four to six from different Faculties:

  • Group of 4 members: groupmates must be from at least 3 different Faculties
  • Group of 5 members: groupmates must be from at least 3 different Faculties
  • Group of 6 members: groupmates must be from at least 4 different Faculties.

What project topics are available?

  • To choose from the list of projects proposed by community partners to be announced in mid-August 2023
  • Self-initiated projects may be considered after the two-year pilot, i.e., from academic year 2025-26.

What are the deliverables?

4 major pieces of deliverables to be prepared and submitted as a group.  These include:
  • A learning contract: it outlines the scope of work, proposed learning outcomes and schedule
  • A group deliverables proposal: it summaries the major tasks to be undertaken, resources required, potential challenges, etc.
  • A 10-minute group presentation: It contains not more than 10 slides, concluding the overall progress, results, findings and recommendations, if any
  • A 2,500-word group written report.

What’s the grading system for the HKP?

This course adopts a pass/fail grading system. The credits and grade (pass/fail) shall be shown on student transcripts.

Schedule-at-a-glance

The inaugural HKP will be launched in the First Semester of the 2023-24 academic year through the Horizons Office. The major steps are as follows:
Dates Process
August 14, 2023 List of community partners and proposed projects will be announced
Late August (Date to be announced) Orientation on the HKP
August 14-28, 2023 Applications: Interested students to form teams and submit a group application to the Horizons Office
By September 1, 2023 (Week 1) Announcement of application results
September 4-8, 2023 (Week 2) Each student group will meet with the community partner and academic supervisor and prepare a learning contract
September 11-15, 2023 (Week 3) Submission of learning contract
September 18 – October 13, 2023 (Week 4-6) Each student group will prepare the group deliverables proposal
October 9-13, 2023 (Week 7) Submission of group deliverables proposal
October 16 – December 1, 2023 (Week 8-14) Each student group will prepare the final group deliverables: the group presentation and the group written report
December 4-7, 2023 (Week 15) Group presentation: Assessment Students shall make a presentation to the Academic Panel, academic supervisor and community partner.
December 8-15, 2023 (Week 16) Submission of Group Written Report Community partner will assess and grade the written report.
Summer Break Prize Presentation Ceremony

Download Area

  • Guidelines | Application Form (requires portal login to download)
  • *Learning Contract | *Group Deliverables Proposal | *Assessment Guidance and Rubric
(*available upon request and will be sent by email)

For enquiries, please contact the Horizons Office by email at hkproject@hku.hk.