"Preparing for the Next Round of TLQPRs" Workshop

on 8 April 2000
Welcoming Remark by Chairman, UGC

Prof T P Leung, ladies and gentlemen:

First, I would like to say how very pleased and excited I am to see so many of you participating in this Workshop so early on a Saturday morning. Today, we have close to a hundred academic staff and administrators as well as student representatives from the UGC-funded institutions here to share with us their experience and views regarding the conduct of the next round of Teaching and Learning Quality Process Reviews (TLQPRs). I am also glad to have colleagues from the UGC, the HKCAA and other institutions joining us today. My special welcome goes to Prof John Leong, Chairman of the HKCAA and Dr Don Westerheijden, leader of the consultancy team which undertook the review of the first round of TLQPRs. They will speak shortly on the HKCAA's approach to quality of higher education and the consultants' thinking on the future of TLQPRs respectively.

The UGC has repeatedly stressed that it regards teaching and learning as the primary mission of higher education institutions in Hong Kong. As part of the UGC's on-going activities to assure teaching and learning quality in the higher education sector, the UGC, in partnership with the institutions, conducted the first round of TLQPRs in 1995-1997.

After the completion of the reviews, both the UGC and TLQPR Consultative Committee felt that there was a need to engage outside consultants to undertake a more formal evaluation of the TLQPRs. Accordingly, the UGC commissioned an internationally renowned group of experts from the Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies at the University of Twente in the Netherlands to undertake the review. The review was completed in August 1999 and the consultants made a number of suggestions concerning the future implementation of TLQPRs.

The UGC feels that it is critical for the UGC to involve and to work closely with the institutions in designing the next round of TLQPRs, and indeed in other areas impacting on the conduct of institutions' business. Promotion of teaching and learning quality is a shared mission of the UGC and the institutions. It is therefore essential, before the UGC comes to any decision on when and how the next round of TLQPRs should be carried out, to listen to what the institutions' staff, both academics and administrators, and students think about the last round of TLQPRs. Your views on the consultants' recommendations regarding the future of TLQPRs will also be very useful.

In view of the nature and aims of this Workshop, both the UGC and the Organising Committee expect the discussions and comments to be candid, but also constructive and forward-looking. I can assure you all that the views gathered from this Workshop will be taken into account by the UGC when we discuss, initially next week, how the consultants' recommendations should be taken forward.

Last and by no means the least, I would like to express my warm appreciation to the TLQPR Consultative Committee for their support for the Workshop and to the Organising Committee for their efforts, in particular the Chairman, Prof T P Leung, for putting together this Workshop.

I wish everyone a very insightful and fruitful series of discussions today. Thank you.

UGC Secretariat
March 2000