Welcoming Remarks by Chairman, UGC at the Presentation Ceremony of the 2018 UGC Teaching Award (6.9.2018)
2018 UGC Teaching Award - 6 September 2018
Welcoming Remarks by Chairman, University Grants Committee
Council Chairmen, Heads of Universities, Honourable Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good evening. Welcome to the presentation ceremony of the UGC Teaching Award for 2018, which provides an annual opportunity to acknowledge teaching excellence in the UGC sector.
2. I hope you all enjoyed the video showing the teaching philosophies of some past awardees of the UGC Teaching Award. Over the last seven years since its introduction, there have been 16 academics and three teaching teams receiving this award. With the continuous support of our universities, we have received 22 nominations this year. Of course this is not about winning awards but about good teaching and I am therefore very pleased to see that all of the nominees have made good efforts in teaching and motivating their students to learn. We are here to celebrate the achievements of these great teachers.
3. Having taken up the Chairmanship of UGC for nearly three years, I have increasingly appreciated the critical role that the UGC sector plays in the sustainable development of our society. I am glad therefore that UGC has been able to play its part in supporting the further development of our 8 funded Universities.
4. UGC's proactive work in facilitating effective communication between the Government and the sector has yielded very positive results. Responding to the needs of higher education, in pursuant to the CE first policy address last year, the Government has provided strong policy support and resources to UGC-funded universities, including the very much welcomed Hostel Development Fund and the 8th round of the Matching Grant Scheme.
5. On the research side, I am delighted by the Government's strong support and commitment of new resources for the sector, including the Chief Executive's announcement that the financial support for research and development will be doubled by end of her current term of office, and setting aside no less than $10 billion as additional funding for university research. To this end, UGC has set up the Task Force on Review of Research Policy and Funding under the chairmanship of Professor Tsui Lap Chee, to review the existing research landscape in Hong Kong. The Task Force will soon submit its recommendation report to the Government.
6. Having said that, as you all know, UGC values teaching and learning as much as research. Over 75 per cent of the Block Grant to universities is purported for teaching. In addition, UGC has always encouraged and enhanced universities'teaching and learning through various initiatives. The funding schemes for teaching and learning related proposals in the 2012-15 and 2016-19 triennia are good examples. Under these two schemes, 61 projects with a total project cost of $380 million were supported.
7. At the same time, the Teaching Development and Language Enhancement Grant provides stable and annual resources for universities to adopt innovative approaches to teaching, improve the quality of the learning environment, and support their provision of language enhancement activities.
8. As I shared with you last year, we had been working with our universities to establish a written accountability framework. With the earnest support of universities, the University Accountability Agreement (UAA) was endorsed by UGC earlier in the year. The UAA aims to assure the public that our universities are committed to continuous improvement and are accountable. The Agreement covers performance measures in various activity domains, including those concerning the quality of teaching and of the student learning experience, which are intended to demonstrate that a university has effective strategies in place to deliver improvements in teaching quality, to enhance the effectiveness of the learning environment and to maximise student learning outcomes.
9. The 2019-22 Triennium Planning Exercise is the first one which is aligned with the UAA that enables forward planning by taking into account institutional performances and challenges, policy direction of the Government and Hong Kong's development. I believe that by working closely together with our universities we would ensure public confidence in the UGC sector as well as maintaining the institutional autonomy of our universities.
10. Finally, I would like to extend to all nominees and awardees my warmest congratulations. My heartfelt thanks also go to the universities, as well as the Chairperson and Members of the Selection Panel for making this year's Award a success. I wish you all a great evening and a very successful academic year ahead. Thank you.