ACADEMIC SERVICES

Teaching and research at the University are supported by a number of academic service units.

University Library

The Library is an integral component of the academic programs, supporting the University’s teaching and research in science, engineering, business and management, the humanities and social sciences. As of 1998, the Library’s book, periodical, and microform collections total approximately 480,000 volumes, plus 24,000 media materials. Its electronic collections contain over 9,500 discs, including thousands of full-image journal subscriptions and conference proceedings.

In addition, the Library offers its users a learning environment rich in electronic information and services. In a sense the Library is always open in that its extensive array of electronic resources can be accessed from every corner of the campus, including all student and staff housing, twenty-four hours a day. Users can search the Library’s catalog of holdings in both English and Chinese using a telnet or Web interface. The Library Web server (http://library.ust.hk) has developed into a central information hub for access to Library information, services, and resources; instructional materials; pathfinders; and Internet sites.

An experienced library staff assists users in a variety of ways, from the selection, acquisition, and cataloging of materials to making use of the collection, online searches, and interlibrary loans. There is also a fully-equipped classroom and a computer laboratory for group instruction. The University Library has a strong service orientation in order to effectively meet the information needs of its academic community.

Language Center

The Language Center has a pan-University role in the provision of language courses. Its postgraduate programs have three main objectives :

• To provide language support for students in order that they might realize their full potential as members of an international academic community.

• To provide language skills enhancement for academic purposes on a regular basis in order to facilitate the improvement of students’ overall abilities in the skill areas of reading, writing, listening and speaking.

ACADEMIC SERVICES

The Language Center has designed the following courses to meet these objectives : Group Communication Skills Development, a course in English for Academic Purposes, focuses on the development of academic reading, writing, listening and speaking skills, as well as some intensive work on pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. This course is compulsory for postgraduates in Computer Science and Civil Engineering and is taken on a voluntary basis by students from all other Departments.

A Postgraduate Self-Access Language Learning Program offered during Spring Semester provides students with an opportunity to work intensively on a self-access project, which aims to develop language skills specific to their individual needs as well as their ability to direct their own learning.

Postgraduate English for Academic Purposes is an intensive course offered during the Summer Session, focusing on the development of academic listening and speaking skills.

The Language Center also offers courses in written Chinese, Putonghua, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, French, German and Russian. The courses in Putonghua have so far proved especially popular, reflecting the growing recognition of its importance in the job market.

The Language Center has three 24-booth language laboratories, complete with advanced audio-visual and computer equipment, which are used by class groups to practice their listening, speaking and writing. For students who need further help with their writing, the English Writing Center (a service provided by the Language Center) organizes workshops and gives individual consultations.

The Language Center also runs the Self-Access Center, a well-equipped facility that provides a wide variety of materials, activities and services to aid self-directed learning of English, Putonghua and many other languages.

The Self-Access Center is open to staff and students on weekdays (9am - 8pm) and Saturday mornings.

ACADEMIC SERVICES

Center of Computing Services and Telecommunications

The Center of Computing Services and Telecommunications develops and manages the computing and networking infrastructure of the University. It provides computing support to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, and research applications in all Schools.

The HKUST computing environment is based on a distributed client-server architecture.

The cornerstone is an advanced high-speed switched FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) network backbone, with maximum aggregate throughput of 3.6 gigabits per second.

International Internet connection is provided via multiple high speed links. Most of the laboratories and offices are provided with switched Ethernet or fast Ethernet connections.

The network covers not only all the academic buildings but also reaches out to staff quarters and student halls. Staff and students can also access network services via a number of Express Stations at various campus locations, or they can connect their home computer to the campus network via dialup modem pools.

The Center operates powerful servers to provide campus-wide network services such as e-mail, network printing, World-Wide Web and electronic notice board. One important characteristic of the University’s computing environment is its multimedia and Chinese-English bilingual capability. Increasingly, more network services will have these features.

All microcomputers and scientific workstations are connected to the campus network, providing desktop computing power as well as windows to a vast array of information and computing resources such as Library systems, administrative systems, academic software packages and audio/video broadcasting programs.

The Center also manages a number of central computing laboratories, providing PC, Macintosh and Unix workstation facilities for teaching and students use. Extensive software training programs are also provided to assist users to get the most out of their computers.

Educational Technology Center

The University is committed to high standards and up-to-date methods in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, research and publication. To this end, the Educational Technology Center sustains a comprehensive service for all academic and research staff.

The Audio Visual Unit looks after centrally-provided AV (Audio Visual) facilities in all common teaching venues, including 8 lecture theaters, some 70 classrooms and 30 teaching laboratories. The Unit maintains an AV Loan Counter and a Self-Access Production area to facilitate the use of AV equipment and resources for modern teaching. The AV Production team assists in the planning, video-taping, editing and duplication of AV, digital and multimedia materials for teaching, research, evaluation or promotional purposes.

ACADEMIC SERVICES

The Graphics Unit assists in the graphic design and production of university publications, teaching, research and promotional materials. Its also offers a wide range of multimedia support services including web page design, CD-ROM production, computer graphics output and large-format plotting. Meanwhile, its Photo team supports flat-copying, location, portrait and event photo-taking together with image editing to produce slides, transparencies and prints for academic and publicity purposes. In addition, the Unit’s Print Shop provides high-speed, high volume reprographic and offset printing services.

Through its Instructional Development Unit, the Center organizes workshops and seminars for faculty, teaching assistants, and tutors on educational issues and instructional methodologies in higher education. Topics have included learning theory, classroom delivery and management techniques, selection, utilization and production of instructional materials, assessment of student progress and evaluation of teaching effectiveness.

The Center serves as a resource for information on teaching methods, instructional formats and materials related to research on teaching. As part of the University’s quality assurance process, the Center helps collect and process course evaluation data for all credit courses and English language enhancement courses.

CENTRAL AND INTERDEPARTMENTAL RESEARCH UNITS