Student Testimonials
Local
Clara Cai
Hong Kong
The most attractive part of BA(HDT) is its project-based learning and practical skill application. We learn digital humanities theories, methods, and tools, and apply them often in daily learning—both in and beyond courses and research. Easy access to cutting-edge tech in the Art Tech Lab enriches this further. Hands-on experience throughout my studies helps me discover my true interests and explore advanced fields.
Extracurriculars and strong internship support offer real-world project opportunities to unleash creativity, bring ideas to life, and sharpen technical skills. Through my work as a student research assistant, I’ve gained especially useful knowledge in interactive storytelling and digital cultural creation.
Though a tech beginner, I feel passionate, supported, and hopeful about BA(HDT).
Yuki Chan
Hong Kong
The BA(HDT) programme is a wonderful platform for students to explore the intersection of humanities and digital technologies. It has broadened my horizons of historical and humanities disciplines, while sharpening my technical skills through coding lessons and hands-on projects—for instance, group projects involving lyrical analysis and digital archive development. Moreover, the programme’s supportive environment provides numerous opportunities for students to pursue their interests and diverse career pathways. I look forward to continuing my journey here and finding out what the future holds!
Vanessa Ho
Hong Kong
One of the things I appreciate about the BA(HDT) curriculum is its flexibility — you can shape your own learning journey based on your own interests, whilst obtaining technical skills and knowledge along the way to aid your future endeavours! Throughout my experience in the programme, I have completed various projects that have sharpened my skills found outside of traditional academia, including an investigation on gender dynamics within news reports of the Olympics. BA(HDT) enables me to learn more about the world through digital tools and link them to my interests in the humanities!
Audrey Mirandilla
Hong Kong
For someone like me who wishes to chart their own path, HDT has been a phenomenal opportunity thus far, where I can combine my own passions to design my own learning journey at HKU. From exploring different tools to process human language through the lens of coding, to the numerous hands-on experiences this programme offers, there's always so much to learn both in and out of lecture, such as the poster exhibitions for our group presentations and trying out projects our professors worked on with the students before us. I'm eager to dig deeper into more ways to bring my visions to life through HDT!
Cole Wong
Hong Kong
Studying as a BA(HDT) student has empowered me to explore the intersections between the arts and the world through digital technologies. I particularly appreciate how the curriculum offers a holistic foundation combined with flexibility in specialisation, thereby broadening my ability to interpret historical phenomena by utilising new digital competencies. This allows me to experiment with my interests and build tangible skills through a variety of curricular and extracurricular activities, including digital research, game design, leadership, and software engineering. I also gain access to state-of-the-art facilities at the Arts Tech Lab, where I work on digital initiatives that transform insights from the humanities into interactive media. I am excited and fully prepared to bring my own digital visions to life!
Non-local
Sheila Chen
Taiwan
(HDT) has enabled me to acquire a variety of skills. While I was once a beginner in computer programming, throughout the first year, I have learnt how to use coding to collect and analyze data, significantly benefiting my humanities studies and providing me with a new experience. I thoroughly enjoy the supportive atmosphere within our cohort - the professors and tutors are exceptionally patient, classmates are incredibly friendly, and the courses and project settings are extremely interesting. In particular, I appreciate the format of our final presentation in the first semester, as it allows me to share and exchange diverse ideas and understandings of the subject with professors and peers.
Kate Kim
Kazakhstan
The HDT programme was one of the main reasons I chose HKU and after the commencement of studies, I became even more in love with this programme! First of all, I really enjoy the freedom that this programme gives you. Right now, I’m taking an intro course to digital humanities, a course in python and different humanities electives. This major allowed me to design my path and I plan to focus on philosophy and computer science in the future. I also really appreciate that this programme allows me to learn through real experience, most of my subjects have projects as the final assignment, which I think prepares me for real work much better than exams or tests. HDT is a truly unique programme and I highly recommend it for students that are interested in interdisciplinary studies!
Syed Ali Mansoor
Pakistan
Hello, and as-salaam alaykum! I’m Ali, a Muslim student from Pakistan, in the BA(HDT) programme at HKU!
I have always been one for interdisciplinary learning. Back in high school, you would see me building contraptions for science olympiads in the morning, preparing presentations for economics competitions in the evening, and working on personal coding projects by night. The HDT programme has enabled me to combine my love for computer science with my passion for exploring different fields of study. In my group project for HUDT1001, we pursued a topic that merges cultural analytics, East Asian studies, web-scraping, and data analysis to gain a deeper understanding of the East Asian film industry. Experiences like these teach you not just technical skills, but rather tactics, methodologies, and toolsets to solve problems in much larger contexts. I look forward to the many more such experiences that BA(HDT) has in store!
Junwoo Park
Republic of Korea
I'm so grateful for the delightful experiences the BA(HDT) programme offers! The workshops, projects, programmes, and research opportunities always spark my curiosity and guide me toward unravelling the mysteries of the digital world. This programme allows me to explore the humanities while staying open to the latest digital technologies. I'm nearly halfway through university and excited to see what the next two years bring!
Francesca Ruan
China
Studying in HDT programme is really exciting and also inspiring for me. During the first year of my exploration of digital humanities, in the intro courses, the blueprint of this uncharted but inspiring field was unfolded, which inspired me with a new horizon of humanities. I was involved as a student helper in the New Horizons in Digital Humanities workshop. In this workshop, I learned about leading research topics in the field of digital humanities, such as multilingual text analysis. I think this is a great opportunity for students and researchers from all over the world to explore this emerging field.
Aparna Saraogi
India
The BA(HDT) programme has allowed me to expand my multidisciplinary background in art and design. Having the flexibility of choosing my Humanities focus from various Humanities disciplines, I took classes across Global Creative Industries, Comparative Literature, and Art History. And the variety of courses deepened my understanding of interpreting various media types through lived practices. The programme’s digitally advanced outlook combines cultural theories with computational methodologies to reshape and explore existing studies and new topics. The past two years as an HDT major have been full of experiential and hands-on learning.