Introduction

European Studies is a four-year programme centered in the Department of Government and International Studies. Its aim is to give students a firm knowledge of the basic features of the European world through a combination of political, historical, social, linguistic and business-oriented studies, together with the experience of living and working in Europe itself. It

• provides students with a solid and up-to-date knowledge of contemporary European societies, firmly grounded in the social sciences, with an emphasis on the European Union and its member states;


• develops their ability to search and critically appraise the basic and current academic literature on Europe and the European Union;


• immerses students for an extended period of time in European academic and/or professional settings, in carefully structured and monitored ways;


• systematically develops their ability to synthesize first-hand social experience with relevant academic concepts and arguments;


• develops their ability to express complex issues in one European language other than English clearly, both orally and in writing; therefore initially;


• assists students to acquire high, professionally relevant proficiency in one major European language (other than English);


• enables students to gather and systematically process Europe-related information relevant to academic and/or professional purposes;


• systematically encourages the use of information technology in both language learning and social science-related studies;


• simultaneously enhances their performance in English as an academic and professional language, and encouraging proficiency in Putonghua.