The UGC is committed to safeguarding and promoting the quality of UGC-funded institutions and their activities. The QAC established in April 2007 under the UGC, operates at arm's length from the Committee to provide third-party oversight. One of the QAC's core operational tasks is to conduct quality audits on individual UGC-funded institutions to assure the quality of their educational provision (however funded) at first degree level and above, with due regard to institutions' autonomy and self-accrediting status.

The quality audits are conducted by independent audit panels appointed by the QAC, which consist of local and overseas academic as well as lay auditors drawn from QAC's Register of Auditors. In 2009-10, good progress was made with the publication of two audit reports on HKBU and HKU, and the commencement of three more audits, i.e. on LU, HKUST and CityU.

Apart from quality assurance, the UGC is also committed to enhancing teaching methods, the language proficiency of students and student learning outcomes. To this end, the UGC provides institutions with the Teaching Development Grants and Language Enhancement Grants, and implements the Common English Proficiency Assessment Scheme. The UGC also promotes outcome-based student learning approaches, which are increasingly used in the global scene.

The QAC's approach to quality audits stems from the recognition that institutions have distinct and varied missions, reflecting the UGC's vision of a differentiated yet interlocking higher education system. Recognising that each institution has objectives appropriate to its mission, the QAC defines quality in terms of 'Fitness for Purpose', where institutions have different purposes which reflect their missions and the role statements they have agreed with the UGC. The QAC sees itself as forming a partnership with institutions in assuring and enhancing the quality of student learning experience in Hong Kong, for the benefit of all concerned.

A quality audit examines whether an institution has procedures in place appropriate for its stated purposes, whether it pursues activities and applies resources to achieve those purposes, and whether there is verifiable evidence to show that the purposes are being achieved. The QAC's Audit Manual sets out how the QAC conducts audits and what it expects to receive from institutions.

It is expected that all eight UGC-funded institutions will be audited by 2011 in the first audit cycle.

Teaching Development Grants (TDGs)

"Teaching and learning" is central to the roles of all institutions. To encourage institutions to adopt innovative approaches to teaching, and to improve the quality of the learning environment, the UGC provides institutions with TDGs. For the 2009/10 academic year, the UGC disbursed a total of $37.6 million as TDGs. Allocation is mainly based on the student numbers at undergraduate and sub-degree levels.　

Language Enhancement Grants (LEGs)

Enhancing students' language proficiency, which is an essential quality of a globally competitive graduate, is among the top items on UGC's agenda. With the Committee's support, a Symposium on "Language Issues for University Graduates" under the "3+3+4" Symposia series, was organised by HKBU and CityU in January 2010 to promote exchanges on this important topic.　

To provide additional support to institutions for promoting students' language proficiency in both English and Chinese, the UGC provides institutions with LEGs, which are on top of resources from their block grants and other sources. A total of $112.4 million was allocated as LEGs in 2009/10 academic year. The amount is allocated based on institutions' respective student numbers.　

Common English Proficiency Assessment Scheme (CEPAS)

CEPAS is another language-related initiative undertaken by the UGC. It aims to:　

● enhance students' awareness of the importance of English language proficiency;

● set up a common framework for assessing and documenting graduating students' English proficiency;

● provide an internationally recognised assessment for students who wish to pursue further studies or enter
   the workforce; and

● enable the UGC to have a better understanding of students' English abilities.

Final year undergraduate students of all UGC-funded institutions may participate in the Scheme on a voluntary basis. They will be reimbursed with the test fee if they agree to have a statement included in their transcripts indicating their participation in CEPAS. The current testing instrument under CEPAS is the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), which is an internationally validated and adopted English test.　

Almost 12 100 final year students, or about 68% of all full-time and part-time final year undergraduate students of the UGC-funded institutions, registered for taking IELTS under CEPAS in 2009/10 academic year. The number of participants was a record high, and represented an increase of 2.3% as compared to that in 2008/09 academic year. Given the voluntary nature of CEPAS, the number of participants demonstrates that students attach great importance to their English proficiency.　

In respect of understanding and evaluating quality, internationally there has been increasing interest in outputs (e.g. goals and ends, procedures and results). Central to our commitment to enhance quality, the UGC advocates the OBA initiative. The promotion of OBA to student learning allows institutions to articulate what they intend their students to achieve and focus their education effort accordingly, and itself leads to better teaching and learning.　

The UGC is facilitating institutions to move forward by building up their OBA capacities. The UGC provided additional funds to the institutions to facilitate staff release to weave "outcomes" into their academic curricula, and shared with institutions the international experience, the challenges and stakeholders' concerns, and ways to overcome them. The UGC also recognises that the curriculum revision under "3+3+4" represents a good opportunity for adopting OBA. To share experience in implementing OBA among the sector, two symposia were held in 2009 - "The Outcome-based Approach: Where are We Now and Where are We Going" organised by the Taskforce on Outcome-based Approaches in Student Learning in May and the "Enhancing and Assessing Students' Learning Outcomes for the New 4-year Curriculum" in December organised by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, with UGC's support, under the "3+3+4" Symposia series.

　

Professor Edmond Ko, UGC representative at the Taskforce on Outcome-based Approaches in Student Learning, delivering the welcoming remarks at the May 2009 Symposium