Outcome-based education is a pedagogical process which focuses on the achievement of certain specified results. Outcome-based teaching and learning (OBTL), therefore, is concerned with curriculum design and ensuring that the contents, delivery, activities, and assessments are all aligned to help facilitate students to attain specific intended learning outcomes. This study explores whether and how outcome-based teaching impacts on the learning approaches of one cohort of undergraduate business students at a university in Hong Kong, China to undergo outcome-based teaching, newly introduced as part of a university-wide policy to adopt OBTL. The learning approaches of these business students were measured using John Biggs's (1987) Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) to determine whether these students tended to favor surface learning approaches, deep learning approaches, or achieving learning approaches upon initial entry into the university. Changes in learning approaches were tracked, after a semester's exposure to OBTL, through survey and focus group interview methods. Findings indicated a significant amount of transference between learning approaches deployed by these students, demonstrating a high level of adaptability.
[Copyright of Journal of Teaching in International Business is the property of Routledge . Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08975930902827825]

Internationally, English is increasingly being adopted as the language of postsecondary education. In Asia however efforts by universities to promote the use of the English language both inside and outside the classroom may be threatened by the supposed reticence of Asian learners. This paper problematizes Chinese learners alleged reticence by examining how one group of undergraduates at an English medium of instruction university in Hong Kong were able to meet the demands placed upon them for participation in spoken activities within their English for academic purposes classroom. Interviews with students and teachers, classroom observations, audiovisual recordings of classroom interaction and documentary analysis were used to understand how students participated in classroom discussion. The results suggest that learners adopted particular oral roles and drew upon a range of resources in ways that enabled them to conceptualize participation in classroom discussion as, in part, the result of learner agency. Implications for classroom practices in content classrooms traditionally dominated by a transmission mode of teaching are discussed.
[Copyright of Asian EFL Journal is the property of Nanzan University.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/]

Over 300 Foreign (non Hong Kong) universities deliver undergraduate degree programs in Hong Kong either on campus in that city or via distance education (or both). Although this topic has been studied from a variety of perspectives, the issue of why Hong Kong students might switch from one locally provided foreign university program to another has not been researched despite evidence of it being common. The current research found that students switched to another university if it offered a wider range of course delivery modes, if they could fast track their degree and if they were failing at the existing university. Increasingly, to be successful in competitive markets such as Hong Kong, foreign universities need to deliver their programs in a wide variety of modes, provide high levels of administrative and academic support, and ensure that they assist their students as much as possible. If they do not, students are likely to move to another provider. These findings have complex and far-reaching delivery ramifications for foreign universities wishing to survive in competitive markets such as Hong Kong--and elsewhere--where there is a high degree of competition amongst universities and a stressed economic situation which could force students to adopt quite ruthless consumer behaviour in regards to their university provider.
[Copyright of Journal of Marketing for Higher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J050v15n01_02]

This study explores graduates' and students' perceptions of the importance of quality of different modules in a Diploma in Hospitality Management (DHM) program in relation to their future development. A structured questionnaire was developed to examine the relationship of the quality of taught modules (courses) and future development. Data collection was conducted at a local university in Hong Kong, through a survey from graduates of the first intake and students of the second intake. Empirical findings indicated that the respondents generally viewed the program positively, but significant differences on various modules were found between those i) who had and had not completed an internship, ii) who preferred to work in the industry and to pursue further studies, and iii) graduates and students.
[Copyright of Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15280080802412735]