The city’s top science university has seen a surge in creative arts, with more than a quarter of its students taking up the arts curriculum.
“[Some] 1,600 of our 8,000 students in this academic year are taking music courses,” said James Lee, dean of the school of humanities and social science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
“I think that ratio is the highest, not only among the eight local tertiary institutions, but also among the world’s technical schools,” Lee said.
“With a focus on creativity and not [just] passive music appreciation, we’ve got the composers to lead students and inspire them in the creative process.”
Lee attributed the boom to the introduction of the Intimacy of Creativity programme in 2010. Since then, attendance for classical music events at HKUST has risen from 200 to 6,000. Last week, a new 400-seat concert hall was opened on campus and another 1,000-seat venue is expected by 2018. The music curriculum will be upgraded from just an elective course to an academic minor by this year’s autumn semester. A future centre for creative arts education is also on the way.
Bright Sheng, the programme’s artistic director and a Michigan-based composer, said the programme was not aimed at producing the next Beethoven.