SLS-2c4 Building and Piloting - OSL - Funding

Quality education, like most things of value, can be expensive.  Similar to most other universities that take service-learning seriously, PolyU recognised early on that financing  of device-learning has to be tackled.  To offer a large number of academic service-learning courses, significant financial costs have to be covered.  These may include the professors’ time, teaching assistants, equipment, material and consumables, transportation and accommodation costs, insurance, … and administrative fees for collaborating organisations.  

When the decision was made to make service-learning compulsory, credit-bearing subjects, the issue of financing was not discussed explicitly at the Senate, where the decision was made.  But implicitly, a large commitment was understood to have been made to finance the offering these subjects. Service-learning subjects (courses) are regular academic subjects; hence it is reasonable that they are financed in the same way as other general education academic subjects at PolyU.  In fact, it was recognised early on that service-learning, as a form of experiential learning, incur additional costs beyond those of classroom teaching. Hence SL subjects are funded at a premium (roughly 1/3) above other general education academic subjects.  A SL subject carries 3 credits, out of 120 credits required for graduation for an undergraduate.  Hence the funding for SL can be estimated to be roughly 2.5% of the recurring costs for undergraduate programs.  These decisions represent a strong commitment to SL made by the university.  

From the operation of the SL programs over the years, the amount of funding seems to be sufficient to cover the operation of most SL courses.  In some cases, however, there is the need for additional funding beyond the regular provision. Some projects may require the organization of large scale public events, such as the exhibition of special fashion designs produced by the recovering mental patients as rehabilitation, or the organization of competitions for STEM projects developed by secondary school students.  Some technology-based projects may require the purchase or development of special equipment or tools, such as virtual reality, augmented reality, solar panels and associated equipment, sensors.  Offshore projects are particularly desirable for us at PolyU.  Hong Kong is a small place where the population is largely homogenous, with 92% of the population being ethnic Chinese.  On the other hand, the economy has long been driven by foreign trade and globalization. Hence students benefit particularly when they can participate in offshore projects, where they can experience ethnic and other forms of diversity first hand, and gain in valuable global competence. But offshore projects generally incur significant transportation and other costs. 

Some offshore service-learning projects can tap into funding for specific purposes, such as internationalisation, which can be available internally, or from governmental and other sources.  SL projects in the areas of public health, social assistance, etc, can also tap into some specific funding sources.  Gradually, the university has also come to recognise the importance of social responsibility as a graduate attribute, and we have been allocated some strategic funding for these purposes.  OSL have also been working closely with the Alumni Office to solicit donations from alumni and other individuals and organisations, which has proven to be a very valuable source of funding for SL.