Its president, Professor Alastair Pearce, told media on Wednesday that the new direction will better position the school's students to tackle the changing world around them.

Broadly, the new curriculum will focus on contemporary art, instead of the traditional, and be a meeting point of Western and Eastern forms of art, he said.

At the same time, Lasalle will work more closely with its partners in the creative industry, as well as with the community, such as its recent projects teaching prison inmates to draw and paint.

Professor Pearce was speaking at a press briefing prior to the campus' official opening on Wednesday night.