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The University Grants Committee (UGC) formally announced the launch of the first round of the “UGC Teaching Award” last week. We are very pleased to note the positive responses of the institutions and stakeholders to the Award as reported in the newspapers. The UGC has always attached great importance to the quality of learning and teaching – 75% of the Block Grants (over $7 billion per year) is used for teaching purposes. In addition, “Teaching Development Grants” of about $37.6 million are allocated to institutions with a view to encouraging them to adopt innovative approaches to teaching, enrich the learning environment and enhance students’ learning capability. In 2007 and 2010, we allocated total additional funding of $107 million to encourage and facilitate institutions to adopt an “outcome-based approach” in their teaching, with a view to enhancing student learning. Nomination Signifies Excellence in Teaching Regardless of their agreed roles, institutions’ core mission is to educate their students effectively. As stated in UGC’s “Aspirations for the Higher Education System in Hong Kong” report, the principal responsibility of UGC-funded institutions is to educate their students. However, institutions’ development in research might have impacted on the amount of academics’ time and attention devoted to teaching, a phenomenon which could affect teaching quality. The UGC therefore considers that the importance of teaching should be reaffirmed as a matter of urgency. By establishing the “UGC Teaching Award”, the UGC aims to recognise those academics who excel in teaching in the UGC sector, and to send a very strong signal to the higher education sector and to stakeholders that the UGC attaches great importance to the quality of teaching. The awardees will become “ambassadors of good teaching” to collectively promote teaching excellence in their institutions and even the entire UGC sector. An Impetus to Revitalising Teaching We have already invited from each of the eight UGC-funded institutions a maximum of two nominations. The process will be very rigorous and selective. We aim to select those who truly deserve the recognition of the Award through the application of stringent selection criteria. Therefore, there will only be a maximum of three awardees in this round. However, receiving nominations from the respective institutions is already an achievement which reflects the candidates’ excellence in teaching. The selection panel will consider submissions from the candidates and the institutions, and shortlist candidates for the second stage of selection. The shortlisted candidates will be interviewed by the selection panel. All nominations will be assessed based on four criteria which represent the important aspects of teaching, including the adoption of learner-centred approaches, curriculum design, scholarly activities in learning and teaching and scholarly contribution to the development of effective teaching practice. Each awardee will be given a grant of $500,000, of which $25,000 is a cash award in recognition of the awardee’s past and present teaching performance and achievement. The awardee should use the rest of the grant i.e. $475,000 to undertake learning and teaching initiatives, such as educational research or organisation of seminars/workshops for sharing of learning and teaching experiences/success stories. These initiatives are expected to make a real and sustained impact in promoting teaching excellence in the awardees’ institutions and the entire UGC sector. We very much look forward to receiving nominations from the eight institutions by mid-June. The results are expected to be announced in September. We believe this award will add impetus to our efforts to promote excellent teaching in the UGC sector. Professor Edmond Ko |
