Page 8 - EdUHK Annual Report 2015-2016

President's Overview
校長的話
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.
Expanded Programme Offerings and Learning Support
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 ve-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.
我滿懷喜悅向各位報告，本校過去一年在多方面均取 得進展，包括:正名為大學、大學學科排名、獲得的承 諾捐款，以及課程拓展等，成績令人振奮。容我在此 與大家分述這些重要里程。
課程拓展及學習支援
本校一向重視課程規劃，以滿足未來社會發展所需。 二零一六至一七年度，本校會開辦三個獲大學教育資 助委員會(教資會)資助的五年制教育課程，計為:中 國歷史教育榮譽學士課程、科學教育榮譽學士課程及 地理教育榮譽學士課程。與此同時，本校亦會開辦由 教資會資助的四年制特殊教育榮譽文學士課程，以培 育有志服務及支援有特殊需要人士的專業人員，以及 一個招收高年級學生入學的兩年制漢語作為第二語 言教學榮譽文學士課程。
本校發揮多元學科優勢，亦於二零一六至一七年度開 辦三個由教資會資助的全新同期結業雙學位課程，計 為:創意藝術與文化榮譽文學士及音樂教育榮譽學士 課程、創意藝術與文化榮譽文學士及視覺藝術教育榮 譽學士課程，以及語文研究榮譽文學士及英文教育榮 譽學士課程。我預期修讀課程的同學畢業時已經準備 就緒，能滿足學校及社會的相關需要。
學科優勢以外，本校亦致力培育學生的「正面人格」及 「積極工作態度」。本校兩年前曾進行一項大型「未 來教師之核心能力」調查，訪問約一千名校長，發現 上述兩項特質最為教育界及社會重視，為回應調查結
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The Education University of Hong Kong Annual Report 2015-2016