Module 01 Academics · Sub-file: Faculty of Humanities deep profile (with a dedicated section on the Department of English and Communication) In a university best known for engineering, design, hotel and tourism, and health sciences, the Faculty of Humanities (FH) is often overlooked. Yet in language science, bilingual studies, translation and speech therapy it is one of the leading players in Greater China and Asia — and it was an early mover in pairing AI with the humanities. This file first sets out the Faculty-wide profile, then drills down into a single department, the Department of English and Communication (ENGL). For the Faculty-wide overview, see faculties-and-schools.md. Sources are the official pages of PolyU's Faculty of Humanities, the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, and the Department of English and Communication, plus their programme pages.

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# 1. Overview and positioning

According to the Faculty of Humanities official page^※, the Faculty is one of the leading higher-education providers in Greater China and Asia in the following areas:

• language science;
• language technology;
• Chinese–English bilingual studies and translation;
• intercultural communication;
• Chinese culture and history studies.

It also excels in the cross-cutting areas of speech therapy, language neuroscience, AI-driven analysis and modelling and healthcare communication.

Source strength: leading areas of the Faculty of Humanities per its official page.

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# 2. Core departments

The Faculty of Humanities comprises several departments; the core ones are:

According to the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies official page^※, CBS is one of the Faculty's core departments, with research spanning Chinese linguistics, corpus and computational linguistics, language and communication disorders, cognitive neuroscience, translation and interpreting, bilingual communication, Chinese language education and assessment, and language technology and data analytics.

At undergraduate level, according to the programme page^※, students may pursue BA (Hons) in Chinese and Bilingual Studies (BACBS), BA (Hons) in English Studies for the Professions (BAESP), or a double-major combination of the two.

Source strength: departments and research areas per the CBS official page and the programme page.

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# 3. AI × humanities: the MSc in Generative AI and the Humanities

The Faculty's most signature move of the current era is coupling generative AI with the humanities. According to the MSc in Generative AI and the Humanities (MScGAH) programme page^※:

• The programme is hosted by the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies;
• It offers two specialist streams: Language and Communication and Arts and Culture;
• It pairs the capabilities of generative AI with humanistic research and cultural analysis.

With generative AI sweeping through every industry, the question of how the humanities should live alongside AI — and how AI can be used to study language and culture — is one the Faculty of Humanities has answered with a dedicated master's programme. This is a deliberate stance of "the humanities are not replaced by AI but harness it".

Source strength: MScGAH hosted by CBS and its two specialist streams per the programme page.

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# 4. Speech therapy and language neuroscience: the "health" face of the humanities

Another distinctive feature of the Faculty of Humanities is its intersection with health — through speech therapy, language neuroscience and healthcare communication. These fields belong to language science and at the same time serve health (for instance, helping people with language disorders recover) — sitting in cross-faculty dialogue with PolyU's health disciplines (rehabilitation, nursing, optometry; see 11 Medical and Health).

This again confirms the Faculty's orientation of "humanities + application/technology/health": its humanities are not ivory-tower talk but an applied humanities deeply interwoven with language technology, AI and health.

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# 5. Placing the Faculty in PolyU's disciplinary landscape

Within PolyU's "application-first" landscape, the Faculty of Humanities is a relatively "light" wing, but one with a clear identity:

• It does not compete with PolyU's engineering, design or health flagships; instead it carves out its own niche in language science, bilingualism and translation, speech therapy, and AI × humanities;
• It provides Chinese and English language education support for the whole University (echoing the GUR Chinese and English literacy requirements; see programs.md);
• It intersects in multiple directions with the health disciplines (speech therapy), FCMS (language technology/AI) and design (culture).

In a nutshell: the Faculty of Humanities proves that even in a university known for science and applications, the humanities can find their place in the posture of "application + technology".

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# Department of English and Communication (ENGL) – Deep Dive: Professional Communication, Translation and Corpus Linguistics

This file focuses specifically on the Department of English and Communication (ENGL) within the Faculty of Humanities, complementing the Faculty-wide profile above and going down to department, research-centre and programme detail.

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# 6. What is the Department of English and Communication, and where does it sit in the Faculty of Humanities?

The Department of English and Communication (abbreviated ENGL) is one of four teaching units under the Faculty of Humanities^※. The other three are the Department of Chinese History and Culture, the Department of Language Science and Technology, and the Division of AI and the Humanities, which will begin operation in January 2026.

The Department's overall positioning is summed up as "Linguistic Excellence in Professional Contexts" — research and teaching are centred on how language actually works in real professional settings (business, healthcare, government, media), rather than being purely academic or literary in orientation. This is highly consistent with PolyU's overall application-driven ethos: even the humanities must engage with the real world and real work.

According to the Department's official overview page^※, ENGL currently has around 32 full-time academic staff, 13 administrative support staff and 20 research staff, serving roughly 400 undergraduate and 250 postgraduate students (including around 30 doctoral students). The Department office moved on 14 April 2025 to the PolyU Hung Hom Bay Campus (9/F, PolyU Hung Hom Bay Campus, 8 Hung Lok Road), reflecting the University's recent campus expansion.

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# 7. How did PolyU's Linguistics ranking leap from around 100th to 51st?

This ranking jump deserves a closer look. According to the Faculty's official news release^※, in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025, the "Linguistics" category, PolyU rose to 51st place from roughly 100th the year before — a gain of 49 places. That is a remarkably large stride within the elite band of subject rankings.

QS subject rankings draw on academic reputation, employer reputation, citations per paper, the H-index and the international research network. Behind this jump lies a systematic rise in the Faculty of Humanities' research output and international visibility in linguistics over recent years — in applied linguistics, corpus linguistics, professional communication and discourse analysis. At the same time, the same rankings^※ put PolyU's overall "Arts and Humanities" broad subject area at 83rd globally.

Note on scope: ranks are from the 2025 edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject, which assessed more than 1,700 universities across 55 subjects.

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# 8. What are the Department's five research areas?

According to the Department's research overview page^※, ENGL has delineated five research areas spanning the full spectrum from foundational linguistics to applied communication:

Of the five, "Language and Professional Communication" is the largest. The researcher group includes Head of Department Prof. Eric Friginal (specialising in aviation English and workplace communication), Prof. Hans Ladegaard (leadership and intercultural dynamics), and Honorary Professor Kathleen Ahrens (metaphor and corpus methods).

The Department's research theme is captured in a single phrase: "Linguistic Excellence in Professional Contexts" — linguistic excellence in the service of real professional settings, not merely of internal academic coherence.

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# 9. What is the RCPCE corpus, and why is it said to be infrastructure for professional-communication research in Hong Kong?

The Research Centre for Professional Communication in English (RCPCE) is one of ENGL's flagship research centres. According to the RCPCE official page^※, RCPCE has an established reputation in professional communication — it "has accumulated an established reputation both in its research activities, professional expertise and its academically rigorous programmes of study oriented to professional communication".

RCPCE's most distinctive contribution is the series of industry-specific corpora it maintains. According to the RCPCE corpus resources page^※, the Centre has collected authentic texts, discourse and genres from different professional communities and professional contexts in Hong Kong, building research corpora that are open to the public. Representative resources include:

The value of these industry-specific corpora is that they capture the real language use of Hong Kong's local professional communities — the actual English writing and discourse of engineers, healthcare workers, government officials and others in their working contexts — rather than textbook English. For discourse analysis, genre studies and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teaching, they are an irreplaceable local data foundation.

RCPCE's stated objectives include: creating corpora relevant to Hong Kong professions, advancing applied research that supports professional-communication programmes, nurturing a postgraduate research environment, and establishing a forum for academia and industry to exchange views on professional-communication issues.

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# 10. What does IRCAHC do, and how does healthcare communication straddle two faculties?

The International Research Centre for the Advancement of Health Communication (IRCAHC) is another of ENGL's research centres and its most distinctly cross-faculty unit. According to the IRCAHC official page^※, the Centre sits simultaneously under two faculties — the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences (FHSS). This dual-faculty structure is an institutional embodiment of its research model: integrating linguistics, discourse analysis, social psychology and clinical practice.

IRCAHC's core proposition is: "people's ability to understand and communicate about health and care information is fundamental to the delivery of safe, high-quality healthcare." On this premise, the Centre's researchers ask: How does discourse between clinicians and patients shape treatment outcomes? What comprehension barriers do health messages face in public communication? How can linguistic intervention improve patient safety?

The current Centre Director is Prof. Stefano Occhipinti^※, whose research interests include health beliefs, stigma and political discourse analysis. International partners include the University of New South Wales in Australia (Health@Business Research Network) and the University of Queensland's Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences.

Institutionally, IRCAHC's dual-faculty arrangement underscores an increasingly important proposition: there is a quantifiable, substantive link between language ability and the quality of healthcare. This is no longer a cultural-literate bonus; it is infrastructure for patient safety.

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# 11. What does Anthony McEnery's appointment mean? A strategic signal for corpus and AI-led humanities

A significant appointment in January 2026 signals ENGL's elevation of corpus linguistics to a strategic level: according to the Faculty of Humanities' official announcement (27 January 2026)^※, Professor Anthony Mark McEnery has been appointed "Chair Professor of Corpus Linguistics and AI for the Humanities".

McEnery is one of the most influential scholars in international corpus linguistics. His academic record includes: BA in Linguistics from Lancaster University (1986), MSc in Information Technology from Leicester Polytechnic (1988), PhD in Computational Pragmatics from Lancaster University (1996), and an Honorary DLitt in Linguistics from Lancaster University (2012). At Lancaster he rose from Lecturer (1992) to Professor (2001) and then Distinguished Professor (2013), serving as Head of Department (2000–2005) and Dean of Faculty (2008–2014). Major achievements include:

• Over £10 million in cumulative research funding
• Leading the British National Corpus 2014 (BNC 2014) and the EMILLE multilingual corpus project
• Listed by Stanford University among the world's top 2% of scientists in linguistics and language
• Awarded the Ministry of Education's Changjiang Chair Professorship in 2021

McEnery's research centres on the computational analysis of corpora and the integration of AI into the humanities — a strategic echo of the Faculty's forthcoming "Division of AI and the Humanities". His appointment is a high-end reinforcement of ENGL's direction in corpus research.

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# 12. What programmes does ENGL offer? The full course map from bachelor's to PhD

# Undergraduate: BA (Hons) in English and Applied Linguistics (BAEAL, JUPAS JS3240)

According to the JUPAS programme page^※, PolyU currently offers the BA (Hons) in English and Applied Linguistics (BAEAL), JUPAS code JS3240. The programme was formerly the BA in English Studies for the Professions (BAESP) and was renamed in the 2020/21 academic year to reflect its applied-linguistics orientation more accurately.

The programme aims to produce "competent English language professionals and responsible global citizens". According to PolyU's undergraduate programme information^※, students may take the following major or double-major combinations:

Graduates' career destinations include media and journalism, public relations, marketing and advertising, human resources, publishing, education and the civil service. Those holding qualifications recognised by the Education Bureau may, after completing the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE), become English teachers. Some graduates go on to postgraduate study in Hong Kong or overseas in linguistics, applied linguistics, translation and interpreting, and communication studies.

# Taught postgraduate: MA in English Studies for the Professions (MAESP)

According to the MAESP programme page^※, the MA in English Studies for the Professions (MAESP), programme code 71026, is offered in full-time (one-year) and part-time (two-year) modes. Tuition is HK$6,500 per credit, at the same rate for local and non-local students.

The MAESP comprises 31 credits (or a version with a 6-credit dissertation), with core subjects covering English phonology, discourse analysis, English semantics and lexis, and perspectives on English grammar. The programme offers four specialist streams:

Electives include "Multimodality and Professional Communication", "Language in the Workplace and Intercultural Communication", "Pragmatic Disorders" and "Language and Crime" — a sign of the MAESP's breadth on the applied side of language.

# Research postgraduate (MPhil/PhD)

According to PolyU Scholars Hub data^※, ENGL maintains standing MPhil and PhD research degree programmes, with applicants able to apply for funding under the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS). The Department has around 30 enrolled doctoral students, with research interests spanning the five research areas.

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# 13. What does the research output look like? Reading the Scholars Hub data

According to PolyU Scholars Hub (as captured in the database)^※, ENGL's quantitative research output is as follows:

Note on scope: the data above come from the PolyU Scholars Hub research database, and are cumulative as captured in the platform up to the recorded date; citations and H-index are affected by database version and coverage, so the official page's latest data should prevail.

Looking at the output structure, journal articles (889) and conference presentations (799) carry roughly equal weight — suggesting ENGL scholars attend both to peer-reviewed journal publication (long-cycle, in-depth) and active participation in international conferences (short-cycle, networking). The 47 scholarly monographs reflect the traditional weight that linguistics places on book publication.

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# 14. How does ENGL interweave with other departments and interdisciplinary fields?

The Department of English and Communication does not operate in isolation within the Faculty of Humanities; it has multiple points of intersection with other units and faculties across the University:

Complementarity with the Department of Language Science and Technology (LST): The two departments sit in the same Faculty but differ in orientation — LST leans towards Chinese linguistics, bilingual studies, language technology and speech therapy; ENGL focuses on English, professional communication and applied linguistics. BAEAL students may pursue a double major run jointly with LST (English and Applied Linguistics + Linguistics and Translation), spanning both departments.

Linkage with the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences (FHSS): IRCAHC's dual-faculty structure directly opens the disciplinary boundary between the humanities and health. In healthcare communication, linguists and clinicians must work together — ENGL plays the role of "language-profession anchor" here.

Alignment with the AI-and-humanities strategy: With the Division of AI and the Humanities about to be established, McEnery's chair in "Corpus Linguistics and AI for the Humanities" points explicitly across boundaries: corpus big data + AI-driven analysis + humanistic research questions — this is ENGL's position in the Faculty's AI transformation.

Support for University-wide GUR English education: ENGL also carries the role of supporting the English language capability requirements of the General University Requirements (GUR) across the whole University, providing English learning support to students outside the humanities — a foundational layer of the University's English academic ecosystem.

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# 15. Frequently asked questions

# Does PolyU's English department focus on literature or professional English?

According to the ENGL official page^※, the Department explicitly positions itself as offering "a first-class English education focused on the skills required in global and local workplaces", with the research theme of "linguistic excellence in professional contexts". This is a world away from a traditional literature department: ENGL's spine is applied linguistics, professional communication, discourse analysis, corpus research and media communication, not the Anglophone literary canon. English Language Arts is just one of MAESP's four streams, not the Department's overall identity.

# What exactly does ENGL's QS 51st rank represent?

According to the QS announcement^※, the ranking is the QS subject ranking for "Linguistics" (2025 edition), underpinned by the research output of the Faculty of Humanities as a whole, not ENGL as a standalone entrant. ENGL is one of the main contributing units to the Linguistics ranking, but the rank covers all linguistics-related researchers across the Faculty.

# Are the RCPCE corpora open to the public?

According to the RCPCE resources page^※, the Hong Kong Engineering Corpus (HKEC) and the Corpus of Research Articles (CRA 2007) are both publicly released on the RCPCE website for professionals, researchers, teachers and students — positioned as shared resources for teaching and research, not closed internal databases.

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