Vision and Mission

Our vision can be divided into two perspectives – personal growth of the students through experiential learning and participation in various real-life projects and providing education in impoverished localities in China.

For the former, we have a belief – 建屋育人 (We grow as we build) and there are three levels of significance. Firstly, we hope to provide our students with the opportunity to apply and utilize their knowledge and skills gained in the classroom to hands-on multi-disciplinary civil engineering projects in the process of becoming competent and accountable engineers. Secondly, students should cultivate a sense of social responsibility. Through visits to remote and impoverished regions and interaction with the local people, students can broaden their horizons, appreciate the hardships faced by different communities, and learn to empathize in a broadened social and cultural context. A sense of civic responsibility would thus develop for our students so they will serve society better in the future. Thirdly, we wish to preserve the beliefs of Project Mingde and foster our spirit and missions for future generations.

Project Mingde also wishes to provide schooling opportunities for the children in distant and less fortunate regions in China. Through proper learning and training at schools, we hope that local students can recognize their talents and potentials leading to a brilliant and fruitful future. 

In the context of HKU’s recent curriculum reform, “experiential learning”, which refers to the development of knowledge and skills through direct encounter with the phenomena being studied, is one of the fundamental elements in the new undergraduate curriculum.  The scope of experiential learning embodies but is broader than internship in professional training.  It takes learning outside the traditional boundary of the classroom, and facilitates the development of an integrated and holistic understanding of issues.  Project Mingde is undoubtedly a pioneer programme of experiential learning and complementary to HKU’s new mission.