16 March 2018

HSMC organised the President’s Forum cum Founders’ Day Ceremony and Reception to celebrate its eighth anniversary on 16 March 2018. The President’s Forum, with the theme “The Future of Liberal Arts Education in a Globalised Context”, provided an excellent opportunity for academics, teachers, policy makers, employers, students, parents and the general public to learn more about the essence of modern liberal arts education as well as the role and future development of private liberal arts institutions in the region. Professor Simon S M Ho, President of HSMC, and Professor Jeffrey S Lehman, Vice Chancellor of NYU Shanghai and former President of Cornell University, shared their views as Forum speakers.

Dr Moses Cheng, Chairman of HSMC College Council, expressed his gratitude to President Lehman for joining the President Forum and highlighted in his welcome remarks the various achievements of HSMC since its inception in 2010 and introduced the HSMC Strategic Plan 2018-2023.

President’s Forum
In his speech titled “The Unique Roles of Private Liberal Arts Institutions in the Region”, President Ho shared with the audience concepts and values of liberal arts education, characteristics and impact of US liberal arts institutions and the challenges they face, the future of liberal arts education and institutions in the region and how HSMC has positioned itself for the future.

President Lehman, in his sharing titled “Higher Education for a Cosmopolitan Age of Smart Machines”, pointed out the traditions of liberal education are, with suitable modifications, exceedingly well suited to ensuring that today’s students develop the knowledge, skills, and virtues they will need to thrive in the decades ahead. He identified five critical qualities which the next generation of young adults, that is, the “iGen” or the “i-Generation” should develop during their college years: algorithmic thinking, critical analysis, creativity, social perceptiveness and the ability to persuade.