Multi-pronged Academic Structure Building With the aim of becoming an institution of excellence that supports and leads quality education development, the Institute is sustaining its momentum with structural changes, strategic recruitment and policy support in enhancing staff capacity.
Sharpening Departmental Focus
In 2009-10, the Institute progressed to Phase III of
its academic restructuring, following the Phase I
establishment of the office of Vice President (Research and Development) in January 2008 to provide leadership in promoting a strong research culture and infrastructure within the Institute.
Phase II academic restructuring began in August 2008, with the existing two faculties reconstituted into three: the Faculty of Languages, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Faculty of Education Studies.
Building on this foundation, the Phase III academic restructuring targeted constituent departments, with the aim of enhancing their capacities through sharpened subject strengths within more focused disciplinary boundaries.
The Phase III restructuring exercise involved two faculties. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences was reorganised into five academic departments: the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts, the Department of Health and Physical Education, the Department of Social Sciences, the Department of Mathematics and Information Technology, and the Department of Science and Environmental Studies. The Faculty of Education Studies was reoganised into six departments: the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, the Department of Early Childhood Education, the Department of Education Policy and Leadership, the Department of Special Education
and Counselling, the Department of Psychological Studies and the Department of International Education and Lifelong Learning.
Building Additional Research Infrastructure
The Institute is enhancing its research and research training capacity through its Graduate School and consolidating emerging research areas into Institute- and faculty-level research centres.
The Graduate School was established to serve as
an academic platform for postgraduate training.
In collaboration with faculties, departments, research centres and the Registry, the Graduate School supports and provides quality assurance for taught postgraduate and professional programmes.
In June 2010, the Institute reached a key milestone in research training by launching research postgraduate programmes funded by the University Grants Committee.
During the year, the Institute added a fifth Institute-level research centre: the Research Centre on Linguistics and Language Information Sciences. In addition, the Centre for Learning Study and the Centre for Popular Culture and Education were established as faculty-level centres. These provide the infrastructure for nurturing young scholars and for identified research clusters to develop further into leading centres of excellence.
Staff Capacity Enhancement
Professorial Appointments
Even as we build the necessary academic and research structure, staff remain our greatest asset at the Institute. To further enhance our capacity, during the year we continued with our global strategic recruitment. In 2009-10, academics joining the Institute included Professors Rupert Maclean,
Paul Harris, Joanne Chung, Richard Tsang,
Joshua Mok, Allan Walker, Cheng Sheung-tak, Benjamin T’sou and John Lee. As this Report was
in preparation, Professor John Lee had assumed
duty as Vice President (Academic).
Grooming Active Researchers
We have in place a system and culture supportive of active research grant applications and publication. Senior and experienced professors provide advice to young researchers, allowing them to aim at quality research and publications with wide regional and international impact. During the year, a continuing professional development programme was also underway, with a series of seminars, workshops and sharing sessions covering a wide range of topics in high-level research.
Academic performance appraisa l at the Institute now places equal emphasis on teaching and research, using a holistic approach. While maintaining the quality of teaching, for which a teaching-load norm was introduced last year, the Institute also seeks to protect staff research time. To further encourage staff to explore innovative ideas and develop high-quality research, funding support was provided during the year for them to refine proposals for competitive external research grants, including from the General Research Fund (GRF) and the Public Policy Research Fund (PPRF).
A Research Active Culture in the Making
As of June 2010, there were 33 Chair Professors and Professors at the Institute. These scholars have brought their high-quality research assets and international networks to the Institute, and have been playing important leadership roles in shaping the Institute’s research culture and helping to enhance its overall research capacity.
With the introduction of multiple measures and resources to support research and staff over recent years, the Institute has been transformed. It now hosts a much greater number of high impact research projects. The faculties, departments and research centres are now actively organising seminars and large scale international conferences, which help to extend the Institute’s global network and forge regional and global collaboration. At individual level, more research active staff are keen to submit project proposals for highly competitive external research funding and to have their findings published in high quality journals and other publications. With more staff and centres engaging in research and research related activities, we are witnessing an increasingly vibrant and active research culture, which will have positive impacts on both the Institute and the wider community.
Giving Equal Emphasis to Enhancing Teaching Quality
Student learning is at the heart of the Institute’s approach to teaching. We focus on what we want students to know, be able to do and value, so that they will become competent professionals and
active citizens who play a role in supporting and developing their communities. As a leader in teacher education, the Institute places great value on quality teachers and attaches great importance to the continuous enhancement of teaching quality among staff. We commend teaching excellence with awards, support teaching innovations with development grants and workshops, and promote a culture of quality by encouraging the sharing of good teaching practices within the Institute and at international conferences. As part of this enhancement process, we value students’ feedback, which we regularly collect to ensure that our teaching addresses their learning needs. |
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