Founder of CityU creative writing programme questions decision to cancel it
Founder of City University MFA programme questions reasoning behind its closure, as students petition for move to be reconsidered
A decision was made to close a tertiary creative-writing course that had been running for five years amid efforts to keep the curriculum profitable and alive, its founder said.
City University would no longer admit new students to its two-year Master of Fine Arts (MFA) programme in creative writing for the next academic year starting in September.
And the official reasons - low enrolment and a financial deficit - were far from convincing, according to course founder Xu Xi.
CityU told the South China Morning Post on Friday that fresh enrolment would end because "it recruited fewer than 18 students in each of the last two years" out of an annual admission quota of 30, and "has accumulated a large deficit over the years".
But Xu recalled: "In my proposal back in 2009 that CityU contracted me to prepare for an MFA programme, I recommended a target cohort of no more than 20, but the university insisted on 30 at a lower tuition rate."
The fact that the fees had gone up twice since the programme's launch in 2010 - from HK$3,180 to HK$4,030 per credit - was also a reason it did not make the annual quota of 30, she said.
With 45 credits needed to graduate, students must now pay HK$181,350 for tuition alone.