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The Chinese University of Hong Kong Announces Double Degree Initiatives
Law students will have the opportunity to earn a four-year undergraduate degree in law plus, after one additional year, a second undergraduate degree in either business or translation (the ¡§4+1¡¨ model). Business and translation students will have the opportunity to complete a three-year undergraduate degree in business or translation, respectively, followed by a two-year graduate degree, the Juris Doctor, in law (the ¡§3+2¡¨ model). In either case, the first degree will be covered by the usual funding from the University Grants Committee, with four years of funding in the case of the 4+1 model and three years of funding in the case of the 3+2 model. The double degree options have been designed to give students maximum flexibility. Both models prepare students to qualify as practicing lawyers while still leaving the door open to other career choices along the way. Students who decide not to pursue the second degree will have the opportunity to gain a minor in the second subject, and students who need time to pursue other career options after completion of the first degree will be allowed to defer the second degree for up to three years. Students will be held to the same standards and requirements for each degree in combination that they would have had to meet for the same degree independently. Professor Gilbert Fong, Chairman of the Department of Translation, stated, ¡§As an international city, Hong Kong is in great need of bilingual lawyers and legal workers. And with the opening up of China, more and more legal documents are being drafted and translated between Chinese and other languages. We are hopeful that our graduates, with excellent training in law and translation, will provide an important service to both Hong Kong and China in the expanding roles that they play on the global stage.¡¨ Professor Raymond So, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration, said, ¡§Hong Kong is an international business center. There is a great demand on corporate lawyers and legal services in the business sector. The introduction of double degrees in business and legal studies can further strengthen Hong Kong¡¦s role as the leading business center in the Greater China Region.¡¨ Professor Mike McConville, Director of the School of Law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said, ¡§We are delighted to be able to offer these options to our students. All of the undergraduate students in the School of Law will have the opportunity to complete a second undergraduate degree, if they so choose, and we hope to expand their range of choices through similar arrangements with other departments in the future. At the same time, our graduate programme will benefit by taking highly qualified and accomplished students with diverse sets of skills from Business and Translation. We firmly believe that these arrangements will help legal education in Hong Kong meet the goals that are set forth in the 2001 Redmond-Roper Report on Legal Education and Training in Hong Kong.¡¨ The Redmond-Roper Report recommended that legal education foster a multiplicity of skills within the legal profession to meet the diverse needs of Hong Kong society. The combination of business and law is expected to be a popular choice given Hong Kong¡¦s position as a center of business and commerce, while the combination of translation and law addresses both Hong Kong¡¦s special position as a gateway to China and the extra demands that Hong Kong¡¦s multilingual society places on legal practictioners in all fields of law, including civil, criminal, and administrative law. Students who do not become practicing lawyers will find no shortage of opportunities to apply their education to careers in business, government, and other fields. The Faculty of Business Administration will reserve 50 places for Bachelor of Laws (LLB) students to earn Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degrees. The Department of Translation will reserve another 15 places for LLB students to earn Bachelor of Arts (BA) degrees. The School of Law will set aside 5 places in its highly competitive Juris Doctor (JD) programme for double degree students from the Department of Translation and, starting one year later, 15 places for double degree students from the Faculty of Business Administration. Students who meet specified objective standards during the completion of their first degree are guaranteed eligibility for the JD programme. Attachment: Fact Sheet
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