The University fared well in the latest Research Grants Council (RGC)’s General Research Fund (GRF) and Early Career Scheme (ECS) funding exercises 2017/18, emerging first in terms of both the number of funded projects and the awarded amount in the subject discipline of Education. A total of 33 EdUHK projects were awarded funding under the GRF and ECS, amounting to HK$18.28 million.

Eleven out of the 31 awarded projects in the subject discipline of Education under the GRF and the ECS went to EdUHK, with total funding of over HK$7 million, representing more than one third of the overall funding amount.

EdUHK’s young scholars excelled in the disciplines of Humanities and Arts, as well as Psychology and Linguistics, under the ECS. In Humanities and Arts, EdUHK had five successful projects, amounting to total funding of HK$1.17 million. It represents a success rate of 83 per cent, or 29 percentage points higher than the overall success rate of all publicly funded universities. The University also ranked third in terms of the awarded amount in the subject discipline.

Regarding the subject discipline of Psychology and Linguistics, EdUHK had two successful projects out of its 11 submissions. The total awarded amount of HK$0.87 million put EdUHK second among its peers and represented almost one third of the overall funding awarded in the discipline.

As at 30 June 2017, there were 178 ongoing and newly funded research projects at EdUHK, with total funding of over HK$111.8 million awarded by the RGC and other funding bodies*. These projects cover a wide range of subject disciplines, including education, humanities and arts, psychology and linguistics, social and behavioural sciences, and physical and health sciences. During the period, 42 externally funded projects were completed, spanning early childhood education, applied psychology, environmental studies, and creative arts and culture. In the same year, EdUHK academics produced 787 refereed journal articles, books or book chapters, 56 per cent of which were related to various sectors of education, including early childhood, primary, secondary, technical and special education.

The impressive performance of EdUHK’s researchers is strong testimony to the University’s robust research capacity in education and complementary disciplines, thanks to the good synergy between senior academics and early-career scholars specialising in different academic disciplines. As public intellectuals, EdUHK academic and teaching staff also contributed to public discourse through various forms of advocacy and in their capacities as chairpersons and members of government committees and think-tanks, as well as keynote speakers of public forums.

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  Other funding bodies include the Central Policy Unit, the Food and Health Bureau, the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research, the Innovation and Technology Commission, and the Environmental Protection Department.

In June 2017, the University co-founded the International Journal of Chinese Language Education with the Chinese Language Program at Columbia University and Chung Hwa Book Co. (H.K.) Ltd. The bilingual journal, which is an international academic platform for Chinese language education, publishes top-quality research articles and papers in Chinese linguistics, language education, and teaching Chinese as a second language.

Leading a cross-university research team comprising experts from City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and The University of Hong Kong, Professor Rudolf Wu, Research Chair Professor of Biological Sciences, discovered that hypoxia can cause epigenetic changes, leading to trans-generational reproductive impairments in fish. The new findings were published in the July 2016 issue of Nature Communications, an authoritative scientific journal that covers the natural sciences, including physics, chemistry, earth sciences and biology.

The Knowledge Transfer (KT) Unit of the Research and Development Office was upgraded to the KT Sub-office in late 2016 to identify research projects with KT impacts and to match the University’s research expertise and outputs with external stakeholders in the form of consultancy, commissioned and contract projects, professional development and patented products, among others. As at 30 June 2017, over 26,300 schools, 75,700 teachers, 1,472,200 students and 254,400 other stakeholders had benefited from a wide array of the University’s KT projects, activities, initiatives and events, covering both education and other fields*. The University’s academic units organised over 450 conferences and seminars throughout the year, allowing local and overseas scholars, policymakers, practitioners and stakeholders to exchange views and generate ideas on education and related issues. To share knowledge and research outputs on the internet, the University’s online Research Repository provides bibliographic records of more than 21,300 research outputs which can be accessed by students, teachers and academics, locally and globally. During the year, over 116,700 such visits were recorded. 

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  The total number of beneficiaries was calculated according to the number of activities involved. Some beneficiaries and schools may have been involved in more than one activity.

Based on the knowledge and data gathered from two previously awarded research projects (Integrated Pond Fish Farming Using Food Waste for Quality Fish Production and Habitat Conservation with funding of HK$1.9 million from the Environment and Conservation Fund, and Upgrading Food Waste as Feed for Inland Fish Culture in South China with funding of HK$4.5 million from the Innovative Technology Fund), the Department of Science and Environmental Studies secured a grant of HK$8.5 million from the Sustainable Fisheries Development Fund in December 2016 to develop high-grade fish pellets from food waste for three species of popular marine fish. This is a three-year project, which aims to reduce the cost of fish feed pellets for safe, quality fish products and relieve pressure on landfills through the reduction of food waste.

The Department of Social Sciences was commissioned by the Development Bureau to investigate ecotourism resources in Wolong National Nature Reserve as part of the reconstruction plan for Sichuan Province following the 2008 earthquake. The investigation resulted in the development and adoption by the Nature Reserve of a set of ecotourism guidelines and two ecotourism accreditation systems for hospitality businesses and eco-tour guides. As at June 2017, 10 farmhouses and hotels in the Nature Reserve had been accredited.

Project Aspire, established in 2004 to serve children diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, a type of Autism Spectrum Disorder, has served more than 1,000 families and children in mainstream schools. Based upon a self-developed curriculum, its services include social skills training, individual counselling, educational seminars and workshops catering for both students and their parents. A new teaching pack and interactive training tools were developed in June 2017. The teaching materials, supported by application workshops, are expected to benefit about 1,000 educators and parents in the next three years.

Since its establishment in 2016 as a one-stop SEN centre on campus, the Integrated Centre for Wellbeing (I-WELL) has drawn on the diverse expertise of an interdisciplinary professional team specialising in applying research findings in psychology, counselling, audiology and speech language pathology to provide assessment and intervention for students with special learning needs. Close to 100 SEN students in primary and secondary schools have benefited from I-WELL’s comprehensive services, including counselling, play therapy and professional clinical services.

As a new initiative to support SEN students and their families at the community level, the Centre for Special Educational Needs and Inclusive Education (CSENIE) set up a Supporting Unit for Special Educational Needs (SuSEN) at the University’s Tseung Kwan O Study Centre in September 2016. Thanks to funding from The Swire Group Charitable Trust, the new unit functions as a service centre, providing school-based and centre-based intervention services to SEN students and support to parents, in addition to professional training for future educators aspiring to serve in the area of special education.

With a donation from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, the CSENIE launched a new resource kit in May 2017 to help frontline teachers support students with attention deficit and/or hyperactive disorder, and students with intellectual disabilities in the inclusive school settings. The kit was distributed to all local primary and secondary schools. The kit was developed from the experience and expertise gained from a three-year SEN project, which has benefited 24 schools with intensive school-based support and 121 schools with consultancy services.

In December 2016, educators, school leaders and curriculum developers gathered at the STEM Education Conference and Carnival, jointly organised by the Department of Science and Environmental Studies and the Department of Mathematics and Information Technology. The event, which focused on integrating the subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and the use of technological tools such as 3D printing and virtual reality, attracted over 800 students and teachers from some 300 local primary and secondary schools.

In May 2017, the Conference for Research in Early Childhood Education, a major annual event for the early childhood education sector, attracted more than 300 school principals, teachers, parents, practitioners and government officials. The Conference explored how teachers and parents can promote children’s “soft skills”, with special emphasis on their social, emotional and moral competencies. Featured in the activities were four presentations by international and local scholars, as well as some 20 seminars, workshops, and poster presentations by representatives from local kindergartens.

In April 2017, the Faculty of Education and Human Development held its annual reception at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, one of the largest international meetings of educational researchers. This year’s reception was attended by over 300 scholars and leaders from more than 145 universities, international organisations and publishers from 25 countries.