UGC welcomes Government's decision to support HKIEd to develop its multi-disciplinarity and research training environment

The Government announced today (24 June 2009) that support would be given to the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) to develop into a multi-disciplinary institution to best enhance teacher education, and additional student numbers would be provided to the Institute. The University Grants Committee (UGC) welcomes the decision.

Chairman of the UGC, The Hon. Mrs Laura M. Cha, said, "The UGC is pleased with the Government's decision of providing within the 2009-12 triennium an addition of 120 first-year-first-degree (FYFD) and 30 research postgraduate (RPg) places to the UGC for allocation to the HKIEd as soon as the Institute has fulfilled the relevant prerequisites as stated in our Review Report issued earlier."

The UGC Chairman added, "As we have mentioned before, the UGC has confidence in the HKIEd's potentials in developing its multi-disciplinarity and strengthening its research capability. The Government's decision today is, no doubt, a boost to HKIEd. We hope the Institute as a whole could put its efforts in providing a multidisciplinary learning and research environment for our younger generations who aspire to join the teaching profession, thereby best enhancing Hong Kong's teacher education and promoting excellence in the local higher education sector.

Mrs Cha said the UGC has already written to HKIEd inviting them to make detailed submissions to the UGC in due course, setting out the details of and justifications for the proposed new disciplines (including how the new programmes match with the Institute's existing strengths and be complementary to their core Teacher Education curricula) and the timeframe of their plans, etc; as well as how the Institute will gear up to enrich its research environment in preparation for its future offering of high-quality RPg programmes. She also said, "Upon receipt of the submissions, the UGC will carefully consider them, and seek expert advice from international educationists where appropriate, in order to decide when and how to allocate the additional student places to HKIEd." She stressed that the UGC will keep close contact with HKIEd in the process.

The UGC submitted to the Government its review report on the Development Blueprint of the HKIEd in February 2009. The report recommended HKIEd to give priority to: the strategic development of teacher education in Hong Kong; the development of additional disciplines that are complementary to teacher education; and the promotion of research and a research training environment. The report also recommended the Government to consider the institutional development of HKIEd as a matter requiring additional funding, over and above existing levels of funding provided to the UGC. The English and Chinese versions of the review report are accessible at the UGC website, http://www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/ugc/about/publications/report/hkied_review_report/hkied_review_report.html

Ends/Wednesday, June 24, 2009