Guests, staff, students and alumni join together to celebrate the Government’s granting of self-accrediting status to the Institute.

Though the Institute passed a major milestone with the attainment of self-accrediting status in May 2004, we can by no means rest on our laurels. Good education demands constant enhancement and continuing development. Our academic and research programmes, therefore, are constantly being improved on the road to further excellence.

The Continuous Enhancement of Programmes
Since the Institute's establishment in 1994, we have carefully mapped out our transformation. During this time, we have made the transition from a post-secondary institution offering only sub-degree programmes to our present standing, where the majority of our programmes are at degree and postgraduate levels. The achievement of self-accrediting status makes us a fully fledged independent tertiary institution.

This year saw the graduation of the first cohort of students from our Bachelor of Education (Secondary) programme, which prepares teachers specialising in cultural and technological subjects. 2003-04 also marked the phasing out of sub-degree programmes for the primary and secondary education sectors. Graduation is not the end of the road for this last cohort of Certificate of Education (Primary) and Certificate of Education (Secondary) students. The majority of them have already enrolled in one of our top-up programmes which will eventually take them to degree level. This migration to higher education levels for students demonstrates our efforts to turn out professional teachers who will specialise in their field of study to meet Hong Kong's education needs and the community's future aspirations.

Programme Development - Evolving with the Times
Benefiting Our Teachers
A major feature of our planning framework involves extensive consultations with key stakeholders - our staff and students, Hong Kong's teachers and principals, professional associations, HKIEd's Council and the Government. In the planning of our academic programmes, we also work closely with local schools, the University Grants Committee (UGC), the Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB), the Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications and other teacher education providers. This enables us to review any necessary changes to programmes in line with the latest community needs and to re-allocate places to areas of high demand when and where necessary.

Our professional development courses have been restructured and upgraded to cater for the changing needs of teachers and the ongoing curriculum developments in schools. To this end, 2003-04 saw the introduction of nine new professional development programmes : one for primary school teachers focusing on education innovation and eight for language teachers with an emphasis on curriculum leadership.