Teaching and learning research since the 1980s has established a trend in students' learning approach tendencies, characterised by decreasing surface learning and increasing deep learning with increasing age. This is an important trend in higher education, especially at a time of increasing numbers of older students: are we graduating more deep…

Anecdotal evidence abounds in Hong Kong to the effect that students entering tertiary education are predisposed to a "rote" learning approach. With the internalisation of higher education in many countries, there is still insufficient understanding of how Chinese students approach their learning. Except few studies were conducted…