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Our new learning platform provides students and staff with rich online learning resources and an interactive learning environment. Plans are underway to develop a range of e-learning exemplars and guidelines for students and staff, including an e-moderation guide for staff.

Our CPE Division, with the support of the Education and Manpower Bureau, launched its first associate degree programme in March 2003.

This two-year full-time programme in Science and IT has been jointly designed by the HKIEd and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT) in Australia. Graduates may apply to pursue BSc degree studies in IT or computer science at RMIT or at partner universities in Australia and elsewhere.

Setting standards in language proficiency
As a teacher education provider, HKIEd is well aware of community concerns regarding the language standards of teachers.

We have restructured our programmes for language teachers to provide rigorous professional and academic preparation incorporating a rich language development experience. Students preparing to become teachers of English now have to demonstrate attainment of the Government's Language Proficiency Requirement (LPR) before they are able to progress to the final year of their studies.

We introduced stringent internal language quality assurance mechanisms into the English Major of our Bachelor of Education (Languages) programme in 2001. Internal proficiency tests calibrated to the LPR standards are administered at the end of the second and third years.

For our full-time students, we offer a range of language enhancement courses in English, Putonghua and Chinese. These campus-based courses are reinforced by language immersion courses in China and overseas. Last year, 57 BEd and Postgraduate Diploma in Education students studied Putonghua in China, while 205 students engaged in language immersion programmes in the UK, Australia and Canada.

Reaching serving teachers
We place great emphasis on activities beyond the campus, and providing professional development courses for in-service teachers and school principals is one of our major contributions. We offer working teachers various avenues for enhancing their skills and qualifications. Our three-year, mixed mode degrees, for example, enable serving non-graduate teachers to draw on their experiences in studying for a recognised degree qualification.

In the reporting period we introduced a new degree tailored to the needs of serving non-graduate language teachers in secondary and primary schools. This three-year BEd (Language Teaching) is offered on a part-time basis with summer intensive blocks, and incorporates the same rigorous quality assurance mechanisms found in our four-year full-time BEd (Languages) degree.