Prof Li, Dr Bacon-Shone, ladies and gentlemen,

I am delighted to be here today to open the Fourth Hong Kong Web Symposium and congratulate the University of Hong Kong for once again organizing this important event. This symposium is the only academic forum organized locally to provide an opportunity for schools, universities, government and telecommunications authorities to come together and focus on the use of information technology in general, and the World Wide Web in particular, for teaching and learning, and for information dissemination and retrieval in an educational context.

Today's opening ceremony is my first public function as the Chairman of the UGC since I assumed that position officially on 1 April. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to share with you my initial thoughts on some of the challenges facing Hong Kong's higher education sector in the years ahead.

To my mind, principal among these challenges is how to prepare our young people to live and work in the Hong Kong and Mainland China of the 21st century, as part of an increasingly global society. The apparently daily revolutions in information and communications technology are shrinking our world and blurring national boundaries, not to mention changing the way we work, study and play. At the same time, the half-life of knowledge is becoming ever shorter, making both higher levels of education and continuing re-education or life-long learning more and more important.

Faced with these challenges our education system, from kindergarten to university and beyond, needs to provide the appropriate educational and learning experiences to produce the right kind of citizens. Our students need to develop a broad outlook and global vision, while appreciating and nurturing their cultural heritage and personality. They need to be adaptable and creative, and aware of the opportunities offered by the IT revolution.

Turning then to the theme of this symposium, information technology, the Internet and the World Wide Web have indeed developed at an astonishing pace in recent years, and developed in ways which offer a lot of potential for altering the landscape of higher education.

During the past few decades, a variety of technology-based learning aids have emerged, including stand alone computer-assisted applications; network information resources; and distance learning offered primarily through television. More recently, Internet-based applications such as electronic mail, multimedia learning resources, electronic forums, and the World Wide Web have become widely available to higher education institutions offering new possibilities in communication, collaboration, and delivery.

These developments in information technology offer the prospect of overcoming or extending traditional institutional boundaries with virtual campuses enabling students to have on-line access to the best teachers and scholars worldwide. Although the substitution of the physical campus by the virtual campus is far from a foregone conclusion, Hong Kong's excellent and rapidly developing telecommunications infrastructure provides us with a unique opportunity to take the lead in the development of on-line courses and academic interactions, as well as increasing access to higher education. The UGC believes that Hong Kong's institutions can compete in this area with institutions in the region through a selective investment of resources in areas of strength as they emerge within our institutions, as well as through flexibility and market-awareness on the institutions' part to respond quickly where the opportunities arise.

I know that the UGC-funded institutions, their Schools of Continuing Education and the Open University of Hong Kong have already done some work in this direction. I expect that more can be done and will be done to maximise the benefits of new information and telecommunications technologies to facilitate access to higher education for those at work and those who otherwise would require special facilities such as the disabled.

Information technology can also extend the range of student-initiated learning beyond what is normally considered practical in homework assignments. It can stretch the limits of what students can assimilate between contacts with an instructor or mentor. Information technology can improve the quality and range of teaching by providing: better access to information; more active learning as opposed to passive listening to lectures; more learning and teaching at times and places most convenient to the student; more opportunities for collaborative learning; and mass customisation wherein technology-mediated learning experiences are tailored to individual student needs.

At the institutional level, information technology is already affecting both the academic and administrative processes of institutions, from the structure of degree courses to the management of resources. Going forward, enrolment and commencement of courses can be more flexible and students may graduate at different times. Institutions can have more flexible entrance policies with emphasis shifted from entry competencies to exit competencies. Students may structure their own degree courses with the help of counselling. Parts of courses may be codified and software produced to accommodate self-access learning.

These challenges and opportunities are facing higher education institutions all over the world and this is an area to which I am sure those attending this symposium will wish to devote some time during subsequent discussions.

Meanwhile I should perhaps note that the UGC has actively supported the development of information technology and the telecommunication infrastructure to support teaching and learning, and research and other scholarly activities, in Hong Kong's higher education sector. In the 1995-1998 triennium, more than $26 million was provided to support the development of the Hong Kong Academic and Research Network (HARNET) and for the upgrading of internet infrastructure. A further sum of more than $70 million is being injected into the development of the HARNET/Internet infrastructure over the next two years. HARNET is now the largest ATM-based network among universities in Asia and the fastest non-commercial Internet link in Hong Kong, and we aim to keep it that way.

In addition, the UGC set aside a total of more than HK$170 million in the 1995-1998 triennium as Teaching Development Grants and some $33 million from the UGC's Central Allocation Vote to support collaborative teaching development initiatives in the UGC-funded institutions. Many of these projects were IT-based, aimed at developing multimedia CD-ROMs and teaching packages, teaching resource sites on the World Wide Web, electronic platforms for delivering course materials and computer-aided teaching facilities. All these projects were approved on the basis that they would contribute to the institutionsí goals in teaching and learning, and ultimately enhance the institutions' teaching and learning environment.

Over the same period, the Research Grants Council has also spent more than $90 million to support IT-related research projects. And the UGC has recently agreed to provide some $12 million in additional financial support to tertiary institutions to develop software and network resources for interacting with schools.

The UGC is itself keen to make use of the World Wide Web to share information and ideas with colleagues. Incidentally today, I should like to take the opportunity to announce the re-launch of the newly designed UGC web page which is hosted by HKU's Social Sciences Research Centre. I hope you will agree that the 'new look' web pages combine clarity of presentation and ease of navigation with attractive Chinese graphical elements. Apart from making available electronically reports, papers, speeches, press statements, statistics, and application forms, we have also established an electronic forum for discussion of issues related to higher education. I would encourage colleagues to make use of this forum to exchange views on issues of concern either locally or internationally, and to provide feedback to the UGC on current policies and initiatives. We cannot guarantee to reply to everyone, but we will certainly continue to monitor the forum regularly. We have also added a "What's new" page to provide immediate access to current information and links relevant to higher education in Hong Kong.

All of these information technology initiatives are in keeping with what the SAR Chief Executive said in his first Policy Address in October last year :

"To make Hong Kong a leader, not a follower in the information world of tomorrow, we need to bring together four things :

• first, the hardware of high capacity communications;

• second, a common software interface mounted on established communications networks, through which individuals, business and Government can interact easily and securely using their own systems;

• third, people who know how to use the new technology; and

• fourth, a cultural environment that stimulates creativity and welcomes advances in the use of this technology."

Nevertheless, we realise that technology has its limitations. While it can certainly leverage the human element in education, it will not completely replace it. To quote from the UGC's "Higher Education In Hong Kong" report -

".......even the best expert computer system cannot replicate the capacity of a live instructor. The charismatic lecturer, the challenging leader of Socratic dialogue, the skilled facilitator, and the empathetic mentor will retain their key roles in the educational process."

The UGC has therefore placed considerable emphasis on the enrichment of the student experience. We believe that students should enjoy a balanced development by participating in campus life, to be exposed to different ideas, cultures and to interact intellectually and emotionally with their peers, their lecturers and professors. In this connection, the UGC is pleased that the Government has agreed to provide some 11,000 more student hostel places in the next five years to enable students to have at least one year of campus life during their undergraduate studies. Meanwhile the UGC-funded institutions are also being encouraged to expand their enrolment of non-local students to 4% for undergraduate and taught postgraduate programmes, and one-third for research postgraduate programmes so as to allow for more cross-cultural exchanges between our local students and their non-local counterparts.

After a period of unprecedented growth, during which the number of first-year-first degree places was doubled from about 7,500 in 1989 to 14,500 in 1994-95, the Hong Kong higher education sector has entered a period of consolidation. I know that to many in the sector locally this emphasis on consolidation is seen simply as an excuse for cost reductions. However, I should like to take this opportunity to dispel any misconception that the Government and the UGC are only interested in cutting costs.

The UGC has agreed with the Government that, after a period of rapid expansion, the sector can afford some cost reduction without affecting the quality of education. We shall be monitoring the situation closely to ensure that this is in fact the case. To this end, the UGC has already introduced a number of new approaches to assuring the quality of teaching and learning, and research and scholarship in the institutions. The UGC organized a round of Teaching and Learning Quality Process Reviews in 1996/97, and conducted two Research Assessment Exercises in 1993 and 1996. These activities helped to focus attention on the importance of maintaining the quality of teaching and learning, and to assess the research output performance of UGC-funded institutions. In addition, the UGC is undertaking a review of research postgraduate education, focussing on the quality of research training and supervision received by postgraduate students.

The UGC is also about to embark on a round of management reviews of the institutions. These reviews will help institutions focus on the quality of their management and to enhance the effectiveness of their internal resource allocation, planning and financial processes. They will also help the UGC and the institutions in discharging their responsibilities to ensure that public funds are properly managed.

The UGC is meanwhile encouraging institutions develop their areas of strength into areas of excellence, and we will be providing additional resources to support developments in this direction during the next triennium. In this connection, I am looking forward to seeing the proposals to be submitted by institutions later this year for the designation and development of areas of excellence. We shall be looking for the institutions to demonstrate high standards of scholarship (whether in research or in teaching) as well as the availability of good quality staff and adequate resources plus external linkages and networks.

We will also be examining how we can make use of Hong Kong's unique position as China's window on the west and the west's window on China to help build Hong Kong into a regional centre of education through the encouragement of more exchanges and collaboration between the faculty and students of local institutions with those of the Mainland and overseas countries.

We will of course also be contributing to the Government's efforts to upgrade teacher education by providing sufficient trained teacher graduates, and taking part in the review to be conducted by the Education Commission on the structure of pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary education.

I look forward to working with the UGC-funded institutions to meet the challenges I have outlined. The UGC cannot work in isolation and needs the active participation of the institutions' Councils, management, faculty, students and indeed all stakeholders in the higher education enterprise. That is why we are keen to tap the capabilities of the Internet and the World Wide Web to promote better communications and information sharing, and at the same time are glad to support the development of the networking and telecommunications infrastructure to support teaching, learning, research and scholarship.

Finally I should like once again to congratulate the University of Hong Kong and the organisers for their vision in arranging this symposium, and to wish all participants fruitful exchanges in the coming few days.

Thank you.