Achievements Highlights 2017-2019

• The University was awarded HK$26.86 million for 41 projects in the 2019/20 round of research funding applications to the Research Grants Council (RGC). The funded projects cover a wide array of subjects beyond our traditionally strong Education area. As at 28 June 2019, EdUHK researchers were engaged in 159 ongoing and newly approved projects, supported by HK$97.82 million from the RGC and other funding bodies. The projects represent a diversity of subject disciplines, including education, the humanities and arts, psychology and linguistics, social and behavioural sciences, and physical and health sciences.


• Among other things, the University once again ranked first in the subject discipline of Education in the 2019/20 General Research Fund exercise, both in the number of awarded projects and the awarded amount, securing 46 per cent of the total awarded amount. Under the Early Career Scheme exercise, the University ranked first in the discipline of Psychology and Linguistics. With HK$3.92 million awarded in total, the University received the highest amount of funding among its sister universities.


• The establishment of a new branch of the State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution (SKLMP), the first national class laboratory on the EdUHK campus, in June 2018 facilitates long-term collaboration among world-class experts and advances research frontiers on marine pollution. The University’s SKLMP branch will support pioneering research and provide evidence-based advice on how to handle marine pollutants that have significant environmental and public health effects.

• To fill the gap of the current shortage of modern Chinese language education materials, a three-year project titled “Jockey Club from Words to Culture Programme: An Animated Way to Learn Chinese” was jointly launched with the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC). Targeting lower primary students, the project produces vibrant and interactive Chinese teaching materials with animations featuring Hong Kong characteristics which are in line with the EDB’s curriculum guide on pleasurable learning. A similar project utilising multimedia materials to teach Chinese History to primary school students was also launched in 2018. It has proven to be well-received with over 1.6 million hit rates recorded in the first year after its launch.





• Funded by the HKJC Charities Trust, the University has been working with Massachusetts Institute of Technology and City University of Hong Kong to run a Coding Education for Primary School project titled “CoolThink@JC” since 2016. The project aims to develop the digital literacy, problem-solving, logical thinking and computational thinking skills of primary students. A total of 32 local primary schools will be recruited during a period of four years (2016-2020).





• With a robust scholarship in early childhood education, the University started to offer a Diploma in Early Childhood Education (Supporting Learning and Teaching for Non-Chinese Speaking Children) in 2017/18. The programme aims to nurture a new generation of teaching assistants who possess the language proficiency and pedagogical knowledge to support preschool teachers, education and community service workers in serving non-Chinese-speaking children. Funded by HKJC, the tuition-free programme has improved the access to post-secondary education among ethnic minorities and has contributed to social inclusion in Hong Kong.

• In February 2019, we had our United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Chair in Technical and Vocational Education and Training and Lifelong Learning renewed for a period of four years under a new title of “Regional Education Development and Lifelong Learning.” Led by Professor John Lee Chi-kin as Chairholder, EdUHK will continue to respond to education issues and needs, particularly in the areas of regional education development and lifelong learning, at the regional and global levels.



• In October 2017, the University was appointed by the World Bank to provide consultancy services for the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training. During the 10-month period, the University has provided expert advice to eight Lead Teacher Training Universities in Vietnam, through training workshops and university-based consultancy services and support to enhance the effectiveness of their teacher and principal education. In October 2018, the President led a delegation to meet with Vietnam’s Vice Minister of Education and Training and other World Bank officials to discuss the roadmap and strategic development of Vietnam’s higher education sector in the context of the country’s fast-growing economy.


• At the invitation of the Russian Department of State Policy in Higher Education, the President led a delegation to visit Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and St. Petersburg in October 2018, where they shared with 40 pedagogical university heads across Russia the University’s transformation strategies and experience from a monotechnic institute to one of the world’s top-tier universities in the field of Education.
• The number of research projects with international collaboration in 2017/18 increased to close to 180, indicating strengthened partnerships between the University and its international counterparts.

• Upon the completion of a rigorous external review, The Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change and Assessment Research Centre have been granted a three-year renewal of their current status of University-level research centres. Meanwhile, The Academy of Hong Kong Studies, which was established in 2015, has also been granted the status of Centre of Excellence for a period of three years. In tandem with those established at faculty level, these research centres serve as major vehicles for the development and promotion of social and education research in EdUHK.


• With the elevation of the KT Unit into a more visible KT Sub-Office, a more proactive and outgoing approach towards the promotion of EdUHK’s intellectual property, engagement in innovation, and KT could be adopted. Its vital role in managing and coordinating KT activities was manifested in our participation in three notable international innovation exhibitions in 2018 - namely the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva, the International Invention Innovation Competition in Canada, and the International Trade Fair for Innovations in Germany - which saw the University bring home 11 innovation awards including three Gold Medals, five Silver Medals and three Special Prizes/Awards. In 2019, EdUHK has received recognition once again at the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva and won four Silver awards and one Bronze award for its five innovations. Apart from these laurels, three EdUHK innovations also won one Gold Medal, two Silver Medals, and one special award in the Silicon Valley International Invention Festival 2019.





• In June 2018, the University set up a central fund to support patent applications and protect inventions by its staff, researchers and inventors as a way to encourage colleagues to protect their own intellectual work through patent registration. In addition, there was a sea change in the ecology of research and KT activities at EdUHK in 2018 as the University successfully concluded its first licensing to commercialise the intellectual property of “computational formula of the norm of Behavior Rating Inventory for Executive Function for Hong Kong in performance assessment of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” of the Integrated Centre for Wellbeing to an educational business.

• As recognition of EdUHK KT Sub-office’s role in promoting the transfer of knowledge and technology of teaching-related software, teaching materials, and instruments, etc. in recent years, the Legislative Council Panel on Commerce and Industry endorsed the Government’s proposal of adding EdUHK to the designated list in January 2019, which enabled our KT Sub-office to receive an $8 million funding support through the Innovation and Technology Fund on a recurrent basis to enhance the office’s capabilities of technology transfer.