M. Paul Clerc Renaud hit the nail on the head when he commented that PolyU's decision to scrap French and German and to relegate Japanese to 'secondary focus' status in the BA Language Studies with Business (BALSB) is 'an insult to common sense' and 'out of touch with the real business world and the employment market' in Hong Kong. (Education Post, March 23).
Since 1976 there has been a full-time programme at the Poly/PolyU with a foreign language (chosen from French, German or Japanese) as its primary focus. These have been fully integrated with secretarial subjects in the Higher Diploma in Trilingual Secretarial Studies (HDTS 1976-1991); subsequently with business, management and computing in the BA Languages with Business (BALB 1993-2002) which was then combined with the BA Contemporary English Language from the 2000 intake onwards to give a fourth language stream (English) as an extra choice and more extensive linguistic studies to all applicants.
These programmes are unique in Hong Kong. The only other foreign language major degree offering French or German is the BA European Studies at Baptist University. Over eight universities, this is a minimal foreign language choice for would-be students.
The PolyU programmes have always been popular. Graduates never had any problems finding good jobs with French-Belgian, German-Swiss, Japanese or Hong Kong firms trading with Europe or Japan. On the contrary, employers frequently commented on the high quality of these graduates.
The decision to cut French and German from the current scheme and downgrade Japanese will be detrimental to the needs of the employment market and will restrict students' educational choices. Moreover, it represents a waste of effort and resources. Over the years specialist foreign language staff have built up close relations with the appropriate consulates and chambers of commerce in Hong Kong, to develop summer programmes abroad for all students and one-year scholarships abroad for some. PolyU has co-operated in financing staff visits abroad to facilitate the establishment of these projects.
There is yet another troubling aspect of this decision. All PolyU degrees are internally validated as coherent entities. How can it be possible to decimate a programme and change its fundamental nature without it being revalidated? It will become completely different with these changes. This would not have been possible when the PolyU had its excellent system of external examiners - where is the accountability in this matter?
