As at the end of the 2017/18 academic year, EdUHK offered 23 education and education-related bachelor degree programmes funded by the University Grants Committee (UGC), including newly launched secondary school subject areas, covering business, accounting and financial studies, history, mathematics, Chinese history, science and geography, during the current triennium. With the diversified breadth of its programme offerings, EdUHK is well poised to fulfil its core mission of supporting the strategic development of teacher education in Hong Kong.
During the year, a new UGC-funded Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) in Global and Hong Kong Studies Programme was developed, with the objective of equipping students with a multidisciplinary perspective to understanding the transformation and development of Hong Kong and the world. The programme is set for the first intake of senior year students starting in the 2018/19 academic year.
To echo the community’s call for enhanced education provisions for ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, the University introduced a new nomination route for non-Chinese speaking (NCS) students during the year. The route attracted 37 nominations from 16 secondary schools, and six NCS students were subsequently admitted.
In April, the University was granted full self-accrediting status for all of its academic programmes, representing another strategic milestone for EdUHK following the attainment of university status. With its entrenched quality assurance culture and established mechanisms, the University will continue to review and revamp its programmes to provide greater diversity for future students.
Since the implementation of the existing curriculum for education undergraduate students almost eight years ago, we have undertaken a series of reviews and benchmarking studies to identify areas for enhancement, good practices, and initiatives of local and overseas universities in learning and teaching amidst the changing education landscape and emerging needs of the community. In our holistic review and extensive University-wide consultation, we solicited input and views from University stakeholders before making the major decision during the reporting year to approve a new Bachelor of Education (BEd) curriculum structure, which will be fully implemented in the 2019/20 academic year.
Among other things, the new BEd curriculum will introduce the Capstone Project in parallel with the existing Honours Project, an extension of Block Practice, and the enhancement of Co-curricular and Service Learning under the new experiential learning domain of General Education. It will also interweave two interdisciplinary courses into the curriculum to facilitate dialogue across disciplines. The objectives of these changes are to enhance the practical experience and professional ethics of pre-service teachers and to encourage professional learning. More emphasis is placed on early preparation for BEd students to adapt to the school setting, and to integrate theory and practice through tailored guidance from professional tutors and extending each of the two Block Practices from six to eight weeks. Thanks to our overseas school partnerships, students will also have opportunities to conduct comprehensive school learning visits abroad. The new Capstone Project, which emphasises knowledge transfer in work-related contexts, will provide final-year students with an alternative to the traditional final-year dissertation to allow them to demonstrate the knowledge acquired in their course of studies in various focuses and formats with the same level of academic rigour.
Another major initiative approved during the year was the new Graduate Attributes “PEER & I” which stands for Professional Excellence, Ethical Responsibility and Innovation. PEER & I will be adopted in the next triennium, applicable to both undergraduate and postgraduate students.
As part of its commitment to excellence in learning and teaching, EdUHK launched various projects and initiatives in 2017/18 to drive e-learning and pedagogical innovation to promote innovative teaching and enrich the learning experience of students.
Since 2012, the University’s ePortfolio has served as an online platform for students to document, manage and reflect upon their formal and non-formal learning experiences, with a view to consolidating and internalising the knowledge and skills they acquired during their University learning journey. The ePortfolio enables BEd students to record and evaluate their learning during the school placement experience. This self-reflective learning will become part of the new full-time undergraduate common curriculum starting in the 2019/20 academic year. The ePortfolio will also be progressively extended to other education programmes, including part-time BEd programmes and Postgraduate Diploma in Education programmes.
As at the end of June 2018, more than 60 per cent of the undergraduate and postgraduate courses offered at the University have at least one lesson conducted online. To provide teaching and academic staff with hands-on knowledge and support, a three-year initiative was implemented during the year to promote blended learning and the pedagogical use of online tools through workshops and sharing sessions across faculties.
The University also provided coding education for undergraduate and postgraduate students. In the year under review, 244 students attended a range of intensive coding courses, covering areas such as 3D printing and the development of mobile applications.
Educational innovation, however, is not just about e-technology. Thanks to a generous donation from the Tin Ka Ping Foundation, EdUHK applied its pedagogical expertise and innovation in educational projects to promote moral education, STEM and STEAM literacy, as well as global perspectives in the school and higher education sectors under the themes of Chinese culture, professional ethics of teachers, appreciation of Chinese virtues and values, the sciences, information mobility and technological developments, among others.
During the reporting year, the University continued to provide Professional Development Programmes (PDPs) for school leaders and serving teachers to enhance their professional skills and knowledge in specific domains. Among the new PDPs offered were programmes in the areas of Chinese language teaching for non-Chinese speaking children, visual arts education, life education, e-learning and STEM education.
EdUHK has undertaken four innovative teaching and learning projects as a leading university under the highly competitive 2016-19 Triennium funding exercise conducted by the UGC. One notable project covers the development of teaching materials using virtual reality, the contents of which will be incorporated into the University’s geography, liberal studies and general studies curricula in the 2018/19 academic year. The teaching materials will also be made available for other UGC-funded universities.
Under the same funding scheme, the University’s ePortfolio was developed and enhanced. The virtual learning platform now serves over 200 undergraduate students from EdUHK and the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine of The University of Hong Kong. With students from both universities learning from and with each other, this cross-institutional and cross-disciplinary project aims to broaden the learning experience of future doctors and teachers as they construct their professional identities.
Almost 2,700 students gained meaningful learning experiences in more than 30 countries and regions during the year, representing a three-fold increase over that in 2010.
The 2017/18 academic year witnessed continued growth in EdUHK’s postgraduate education, from funded research postgraduate places to the recruitment of international students. During the year, two students selected by the Research Grants Council (RGC) to receive the prestigious Hong Kong PhD Fellowship (HKPF) commenced their Doctor of Philosophy studies at the University. Five more EdUHK-nominated candidates, coming from the Mainland, Bangladesh and the United Kingdom, were awarded the Fellowship and will commence their PhD studies in 2018/19. With the rising number of HKPF recipients and the University’s track record in other RGC-funded schemes, EdUHK was allocated 69 UGC-funded research postgraduate places in the 2017/18 academic year. This will be further increased to 75 in 2018/19. The percentage of overseas research postgraduate students has also risen substantially over the past few years, from four per cent in 2015/16 to 30 per cent in 2017/18.
Since the 2015/16 academic year, the University’s PhD students have been given the opportunity to enrol in the Cotutelle PhD Programme through a partnership between EdUHK and overseas universities. During the 2017/18 academic year, another two dual doctoral degree programmes were developed for students in the Doctor of Education (EdD) Programme in partnership with the Leuphana University of Lüneburg in Germany and Hiroshima University in Japan. Students who complete the programme will be granted an EdD degree of Doctor of Education from EdUHK and a PhD from the partner university.
In the area of taught postgraduate education, the number of applications and students surged by 32 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively. During the year, a new specialised area, Language Education (Chinese), was introduced in the Doctor of Education programme for implementation in the 2018/19 academic year.
A collaborative arrangement between the University and United World College Changshu China (UWC Changshu China) created new field experience opportunities for the University’s International Baccalaureate-certified prospective teachers. In 2018, nine students in the Master of Arts in Teaching Chinese as an International Language (MATCIL) programme completed six-week internships to better understand the relevant educational theories in teaching Chinese and put them into practice.
In the Chief Executive’s Award for Teaching Excellence 2017/18 Scheme, of the 38 recipients in the areas of “Kindergarten Education”, “Physical Education Key Learning Area” and “Technology Education Key Learning Area”, 21 were graduates of EdUHK or the former Colleges of Education, with seven receiving awards and 14 getting certificates of merit. Since the Scheme’s inception, 636 out of 878 (approximately 72 per cent) of the awards or certificates have been presented to alumni of EdUHK or the former Colleges of Education.
