Coronavirus: some Hong Kong universities to still have online learning in place when semester kicks off in September

Representatives of five local institutions of higher learning told the Post they will gradually or partially return to face-to-face classes

The news came as a survey conducted by Lingnan University showed broad dissatisfaction among local students with learning remotely

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Published: 11:35pm, 24 Jun 2020Updated: 7:43pm, 3 Aug 2020

At least five Hong Kong universities will continue holding online lessons for at least the first few weeks of the semester beginning in September amid ongoing uncertainty over the Covid-19 pandemic.

The University of Hong Kong (HKU), the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Chinese University (CUHK), City University (CityU) and Lingnan University all told the Post they would gradually or partially return to face-to-face classes for the 2020-21 academic year.

The news came alongside a survey released on Wednesday which showed more than 60 per cent of university students polled believed online learning was less beneficial than classroom teaching, while fewer than 30 per cent of respondents said they were satisfied with their online learning experience amid the pandemic.

On-campus classes at all eight publicly funded universities in Hong Kong have been suspended since February due to the local pandemic, with most classes still online for the remainder of the semester.

The results of a survey released on Wednesday showed more than 60 per cent of respondents believed online learning less beneficial than the classroom version. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

A spokeswoman at HKU said larger lectures, those with more than 90 students, would generally be conducted online next semester, while face-to-face teaching would still be in place for small group classes of up to 25 pupils, as well as some lectures in larger halls that could accommodate appropriate social distancing.

She added that if mainland or international students were unable to make it back to campus because of visa, quarantine or travel arrangement issues, course materials would be made available online for the first three weeks of the starting semester.