|
|
|
|
|
Members of the University Grants Committee (UGC) come from different sectors. Most of them are academics, i.e. among the 25 non-official members, 6 are from non-academic sector while the remaining 19 are local or overseas academics/from the education sector. All the members are appointed in their personal capacities. To ensure impartiality and knowledge about the local situation, it is not appropriate for local academics or overseas members to assume the Chairmanship. Even if the Chairman is from the business sector, his/her appointment is purely based on his/her caliber, vision and concern on and contribution to education matters. Besides, each decision of the Council is made after detailed discussion and careful deliberation, and not dictated by the Chairman. At the LegCo Panel on Education meeting held earlier this week, the UGC Chairman explained to representatives from the institutions and the staff associations the allocation method of research funding and Competitive Allocation of undergraduate places. Views from participants were diverse. The Chairman has clarified some misunderstandings raised by the deputations. First, there was no funding cut to the institutions. The recurrent funding in the last few years has remained stable, in fact increasing slightly. Starting from 2012/13, the number of first-year-first-degree places will increase from 14 600 to 15 000. The number of senior year places provided for sub-degree graduates will also double to 8 000 gradually. On research, the UGC successfully secured $18 billion from the Government in 2009 to set up the Research Endowment Fund. Noting during various consultations the specific needs of the humanities and social science (HSS) academics in conducting research, the UGC has decided to extend the scope of teaching relief support to facilitate the academics in their creative work and research; and launch the prestigious fellowship scheme for outstanding HSS researchers. Unfortunately, the above initiatives have been misinterpreted as the UGC neglecting teaching but emphasizing research. It has been a strong belief of the UGC that teaching and learning should always come first among the various responsibilities of an institution. The UGC has all along been attaching much importance to raising the quality of teaching and learning – three-quarters of our UGC's Block Grant is designated for teaching; Teaching Development Grants are also provided annually for the institutions to try on new and innovative pedagogy and improve teaching and students' learning environment. Separately, the UGC has also set up the Teaching Award Scheme to commend academics with exemplary performance in teaching. That said, research is also essential and should be pursued by the institutions, because institutions should create and spread knowledge, and in fact teaching and research are closely related. In this regard, the UGC will continue to drive excellence in research, and apply the research outcome to inform teaching, so as to enhance teaching and learning quality. Outstanding research drives innovation and contributes to society. Yet, given finite resources, it is essential to allocate research funding in ways that drive excellence. At the LegCo meeting, some of the institutions’ representatives had expressed worries that pursuit of research at international standard might lead to neglect of applied research and research having local relevance. Institutions are at different stages of research development. The UGC is supportive of different types of research. As long as the research is of outstanding quality, it will definitely receive support. Past records show that the Research Grants Council has supported research projects at international level in all the eight UGC-funded institutions. Besides, the Government introduced the public policy research scheme in 2005, which aims to support academics to take forward Hong Kong-related research projects. We hope that academics can make good use of such schemes. Besides, the RGC has also set up the Early Career Scheme to provide sufficient resources to nurture new academics to conduct research. Since resources provided for the institutions from the UGC are public funding, we should have a mechanism, consistent with the principle of institutional autonomy, to encourage institutions to pursue excellence while at the same time being accountable to the Government and the general public. We understand that each institution has its own mission and direction for development. In this regard, we would listen to the various views and comments, and strike a balance among different stakeholders when allocating resources. By so doing, we can ensure proper and prudent use of funding as well as to meet the needs of the institutions and society. The University Grants Committee |
