I am most pleased to report the progress made during the year on various fronts. The exciting developments of our university title, university subject rankings, pledged donations and further expansion of our programme offerings are milestones that I would like to highlight in this overview.
We have always been mindful that our programmes are planned well ahead in anticipation of future societal needs. Launching in the 2016-17 academic year are three new University Grants Committee (UGC)-funded five-year education programmes: the Bachelor of Education (Honours) in Chinese History, Bachelor of Education (Honours) in Science and Bachelor of Education (Honours) in Geography. Concurrently, we are also offering a new UGC-funded four-year Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Special Education programme to prepare professionals who aspire to serve and support the well-being of people with special needs, and a two-year Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language programme specially designed for senior year entry.
Tapping our multidisciplinary subject strengths, we also launched three new UGC-funded co-terminal double degree programmes in 2016-17: the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Creative Arts and Culture and Bachelor of Education (Honours) in Music, Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Creative Arts and Culture and Bachelor of Education (Honours) in Visual Arts, and Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Language Studies and Bachelor of Education (Honours) in English Language. I envisage that upon their graduation, students of these programmes will be well prepared to satisfy the relevant demand in schools and the community.
Subject strengths aside, we also strive to prepare all of our students, many of whom are future teachers, with a “positive personality” and “positive work attitude”. These most sought-after qualities, which emerged from our large-scale Survey of Core Competencies of Future Teachers conducted among some 1,000 principals two years ago, have consistently been requested by the school sector and wider community. In response, we developed Positive and Values Education (PAVE) courses to cultivate positive emotions and thinking, resilience and good interpersonal relationships among our students. To ensure that they will be bolstered with positive mindsets and able to engage others through spreading positive values across the schools and organisations they serve in future, we will require new students from the 2016-17 cohort onwards to take one of the PAVE courses as a graduation prerequisite. With the same purpose, we also launched the School-University-Reaching-Enterprise Partnership Project in January 2016. Through partnering with secondary schools, businesses and industries, outstanding practitioners are invited as “Career Coaches”, offering their latest knowledge on career and life planning, through which our students are better prepared as future teachers.
We are pleased to learn of the results in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings by Subject 2016, where our institution emerged second in Asia and 12th in the world in Education. We are greatly encouraged by the latest positions, as they surpassed our rankings in 2015 of third in Asia and 15th in the world in Education.
The significant rise of our status in the international higher education arena confirms our growth on the research front. In the 2016-17 research funding applications, with results released by the Research Grants Council (RGC) on 30 June 2016, we were awarded HK$13.27 million in funding for 27 projects under the General Research Fund (GRF) and Early Career Scheme (ECS) categories. The funded GRF and ECS projects go beyond our traditionally strong Education area, spanning the subject disciplines of Humanities and Arts, Civil Engineering, Surveying, Building and Construction, Psychology and Linguistics, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Mathematics and Physical Sciences. With these newly funded projects and those previously awarded, our senior academics and emerging young scholars are undertaking 156 ongoing projects funded by the RGC and the Central Policy Unit, with a total awarded amount of HK$92.23 million, in a wide array of disciplines and subjects. Our efforts to secure research funding, supported by other initiatives and activities, have helped the transfer of knowledge while advancing a research-active environment and research-robust culture on campus.
During the year, we recorded our best-ever fundraising results, with over HK$164 million pledged by various donors, foundations and grants. The pledged amounts came from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, The Swire Group Charitable Trust, Cho Kwai Chee Foundation Limited, Hong Kong Rugby Union, Mr Lau Ming Wai, Simon K.Y. Lee Foundation Limited, Ning Po Residents Association (HK) Ltd, iOne Financial Press Limited, Lau Chor Tak Foundation Limited and Fung Sun Kwan Chinese Arts Foundation Limited, among others. We are deeply grateful for the generous donations, which have allowed us to enhance our capacities and make ongoing development on campus for learning and teaching activities and other programme needs.
We also receive the staunch support of the community in the form of expertise advice. The Presidential Advisory Group (PAG), which I initiated two years ago, was founded as a high-level platform whose members were leading figures of school sponsoring bodies, the secondary, primary, early childhood and family education fields, the Legislative Council and the business and broadcasting sectors. In my regular meetings with members of the PAG and its four sub-groups with focuses on different education areas, I have been given most insightful views and invaluable advice regarding our ongoing development and programme offerings.
During the year, the former Institute was successfully renamed The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK). On 27 May 2016, the entire University community, including staff members, students and alumni as well as our friends and supporters, was thrilled and celebrated the renaming at a party held on campus. The very fruitful outcome, following the Executive Council’s approval of the award of a university title in January, three rounds of readings of the HKIEd (Amendment) Bill 2016 in the Legislative Council between March and May, and the publication of the Government Gazette of the HKIEd (Amendment) Ordinance 2016 in mid-May, concluded our decade-long pursuit of a university title and also marked a new beginning in our development.
Students graduating in 2015-16 were the first cohort conferred degrees under the name of EdUHK. Indeed, a new chapter has begun for the whole University community. To this end, we started an extended process of revisiting EdUHK’s positioning and direction, mapping out strategies that will reflect our new status as a university. During the year the senior management team and I worked closely together on the Strategic Plan 2016-2025, engaging the entire University community through consultation and discussion. That effort aimed to ensure the smooth promulgation and implementation of the Strategic Plan, which will guide the University’s development into the next decade.
Arduous as it was, the founding of The Education University of Hong Kong would not have been possible without support from numerous parties. As such, I would like to register my most sincere gratitude to our government for its policy support, the recommendation of awarding university title made by the UGC in its review report, and the wise counsel of our Council and the steering of the Chairman in particular. Of equal importance have been the patience, understanding and support of the entire University community, our friends and partners. With our leadership in Education and added strengths in related multidisciplinary areas, as well as the continued support of our stakeholders, EdUHK will strive to become a leading university in Education in Hong Kong and beyond.
Professor Stephen Y.L. Cheung, BBS, JP
President
December 2016
