UNIV: 4,300 students from 200 universities with Benedict XVI

A university student talking to
Pope Benedict XVI during the
audience last UNIV 2008.

UNIV 2009 in Hong Kong, Southeast Asia

The Hong Kong organizing committee for UNIV 2009 started looking for interested participants in the middle of October 2008. Two weeks later, university students from different institutions joined the first briefing in Kam Him Study Centre. A second briefing took place on November 8, and afterwards, we conducted interviews to select the participants. By December, our Hong Kong UNIV 2009 group had 8 members.

We designed a strategic plan for the UNIV projects with follow-up meetings and workshops. We also divided our group into two teams, to work on two different projects and topics. One team will work on "The Confucian Meaning of the University" or "Big Learning",which is much related nowadays to the Hong Kong University's learning methods. This project will reflect the importance of the wholistic learning in Chinese philosophy which, according to Confucius, always involves the social good of the community. The other team decided to focus on "Comparative Studies of the Chinese and European Universities". Since this topic is quite broad, it was narrowed down to a more particular issue, and that is, to make a study of The City University of Hong Kong, which has new policies to improve the "development of the whole person" and how the Chinese concept of university learning is developing closer to the original definition of universality.

In January 2009, we had the third briefing,which was held for pre-university students. Among them were Jodhy and Maggie, and they decided to join one team. They are currently supporting both projects by designing a poster.

One of the suggestions for the poster was to include the "Ying and the Yang", a Chinese symbol that represents the primal opposing but complementary forces found in all things of the universe. As one looks at it, it outlines the need of balance in all things.

We find this very appropriate to explain the mutual understanding between the East and the West and how these two forms of thinking are not only possible but necessary as well.

As the second project is based on The City University of Hong Kong and is where the team members are studying, this team thought it would be good to seek advice and financial support from the University. So, this team approached one of the professors of the University who is an expert in Asian Education. He is guiding the team to understand more deeply both the applicability of the Confucian thought in modern universities and the need to have a more inclusive learning in Hong Kong universities.

The team's members have very diverse backgrounds which makes working together more interesting. Some are from Hong Kong, others like Tong and Shirley from Mainland China, and others from overseas, one of whom is from Spain. The common language used during the
meetings and discussions has to be English.

The UNIV 2009 of Hong Kong hopes to bring a piece of China to Rome this year. We are preparing some Chinese performances for the international gatherings. Our masterpiece is The Butterfly Lovers, a Chinese classic that shows the impossibility of women to go to school and not to have the opportunity to be learned as the men. The story develops as a tragedy when the main character, a girl from a wealthy family, feels compelled to learn more outside her home but the society of that time prevented her from doing so.

For the rest of the months before UNIV 2009 in Rome, we have planned a series of workshops on the current topic, as well as about Rome. One way is by first understanding Western art, as our exposure here is more to Chinese and Asian art. It is a fact that Rome offers so many opportunities for people to admire the arts, plus learn about the history of Christianity through art. We want to be well prepared to broaden our horizons and start our journey to the knowledge without limits.

UNIV 2009 for Southeast Asia

If you want to know more about UNIV 2009, you can check out in http://www.univforum.org/english/newsuniv08.html

The topic for 2009 is Rome, 4-12 April 2009 Universitas, Knowledge without limits

Universitas is the name of the challenge facing the University today: the challenge of recuperating itself. The university system to which we are accustomed revolves around the Faculty, often understood as a center of higher learning that offers its students the possibility of preparing themselves for specialized professional work. Consequently, it often becomes difficult to find things in common between the distinct Faculties of a University. And nevertheless, there are things in common.

Together with this challenge, a question arises: What role does the University play in a plural society? Society expects from the University competent professionals, scientific answers, technical or medical solutions, etc. But the problem most particular to a plural society is dialogue. And it is perhaps in this aspect that Universitas really has something to say.
Universitas, knowledge without limits (136kb)

Transfer in Rome
http://www.atac.roma.it/index.asp?p=1&i=0&o=0&tpg=8&a=4