"The Institute is conscious that it has to revisit its role, review its comparable strength, and enhance the effectiveness of its governance and management."

It is my great pleasure to write the second Annual Report Foreword since I assumed office as the Chairman of the Council of the Institute in April 2003.

The academic year 2003-04 represented an important milestone in the development of the Institute since its establishment in 1994. The phenomenal growth and achievements of the Institute over one decade culminated in the granting of self-accrediting status by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government with effect from 1 May 2004. I would like to register formally my acknowledgement and deep gratitude to Professor Paul Morris who has worked on this mission and led the staff and students throughout the upgrading process. The achievement was evidenced by the encouraging remarks made by the University Grants Committee (UGC) in its Report submitted to the Government, which stated that "the Institute is strongly led in respect of quality" and it has "reached the level of maturity, sophistication and effectiveness at which it was appropriate to transfer accreditation from external agencies to the Institute itself."

With the fast changing landscape of Hong Kong's higher education, the Institute is conscious that it has to revisit its role, review its comparable strength, and enhance the effectiveness of its governance and management in order to respond to community needs and to achieve its objectives. By moving ahead with the establishment of a Task Force and three Focus Groups, as well as through in-depth discussions in two Council retreats, we were better able to map out coordinated strategies for the long term development of the Institute.

While very clear about the well-defined role of the Institute among Hong Kong's higher education institutions in focusing on teacher education, the Council has been exploring and examining appropriate actions in relation to the feasibility, desirability and form of deep collaboration with other local tertiary institutions.

Internally, the governance structure of the Council has been streamlined by dissolving some committees and subsuming a few sub-committees under other committees. With the new Council structure, policy deliberation and decision making have been made more focused and efficient.

At the Institute level, the management has successfully introduced and implemented the Voluntary Departure Scheme for non-academic staff, which resulted in savings of some 20 percent in non-academic staffing expenditure and allowed the Institute to focus resources on its core activities.

With the successful execution of out-tasking for security, cleaning, landscaping and other non-academic services in the previous academic year, the Institute took a further step by outsourcing its internal audit service in 2003-04. By permitting operations to be scrutinised by an independent and professional third party, it will ensure we achieve greater transparency as a publicly-funded organisation.

The local higher education sector faced unprecedented challenges in the academic year 2003-04. Steered by the UGC through the introduction of a Matching Grant Scheme in 2003, the Institute, like other universities, endeavoured to foster a culture of philanthropy and altruism among its alumni and members of the community. Raising funds and donations is admittedly a daunting task for any tertiary institution, especially one which focuses on teacher education. The Institute has nonetheless made significant headway in soliciting donations within the year. I am indeed very proud of the spirit and effort Institute staff have demonstrated in meeting these challenges.

In the foreseeable future, the macro perspective of a keenly competitive higher education sector, the decline in resources, the rigorous pace of local education reforms and a rapidly declining school age student population are key factors we have to contend with. Notwithstanding these, we are determined to focus our best efforts in surmounting the challenges.

This Foreword will not be complete without expressing my most sincere appreciation for the contributions made by retiring Council Members, Mr Alfred Chan Wing-kin, Mrs Angela Cheung Wong Wan-yiu, JP, Mr Ho Tin-yau, Mr Lin Man-sheung, Sir William Taylor, CBE, Professor Amy Tsui Bik-may and Dr Jan Westrick.

Last but not least, I would also like to welcome six new Council Members, namely Mr Chan Wing-kwong, MH, Dr Cheung Kwok-wah, Mrs Sylvia Cheung Tsoi Wing-tin, Mr Ma Siu-leung, Mr Tai Hay-lap, BBS, JP and Professor Bernard Luk Hung-kay who joined the Institute in September 2003 as Vice President (Academic). With the wealth of knowledge, experience and commitment both of our ongoing and our new Members, and the support of the Government and the Hong Kong community, I am confident that the Council and the management will continue to work as a cohesive team for the positive development of the Institute as well as for the betterment of teacher education and the school community in Hong Kong.



Thomas K Leung, BBS, JP
Chairman of the Council