This book examines in detail the efforts of the University of Hong Kong to provide adult education opportunities at university level, the establishment of its Department of Extra-Mural Studies in 1956 and the School of Professional and Continuing Education (HKU SPACE) in 1992.
The book witnesses and chronicles the 90 years wherein the University of Hong Kong and its graduates were intimately engaged in the development of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong's universities have been transformed by the move from elite to mass higher education, from government support to market driven finance, from academic management to professional management, from local to cross border and international outreach, from China's education bridge to China's education window, and from a colonial model of curricular specialization to a postcolonial model emphasizing broader intellectual development and service. As the landscape of Hong Kong higher education has undergone change, so have the backgrounds, specializations, expectations and work roles of academic staff. The academic profession is ageing, increasingly insecure, more accountable, more international, at the same time, more Mainland-focused and less likely to be organized only along disciplinary lines. The academic profession today is expected to be more innovative in teaching, more productive in research and more entrepreneurial in fundraising. New approaches to governance have evolved and blurred the boundaries between academic and managerial roles within the university. The power to appoint members to university councils has become an area of contention. It has come increasing differentiation and changing expectations about knowledge creation and application. This has expanded the role of the academy and challenged the coherence and viability of the traditional academic role and loyalties to original disciplines. Based on the multitude of challenges in Hong Kong higher education, this book explores the future direction of Hong Kong academic profession. "Hong Kong has arguably one of the best higher education systems in the world. At the heart of this system, and indeed of any system, is the academic profession. The Changing Academic in Hong Kong provides a convincing and multifaceted analysis of the professoriate. This book is essential for understanding Hong Kong's success--and it has lessons for a broader understanding of the academic profession." Philip G. Altbach, Research Professor, Boston College, USA "The one book that has presented a complete portrait of recent changes and challenges to Hong Kong’s academic profession –the book should be recognized as a classic." Futao Huang, Professor of Higher Education, Hiroshima University, Japan "Gerard Postiglione and Jisun Jung have successfully pulled together a strong team of researchers making significant contributions to the debates of changing academic profession, especially as universities in Hong Kong are developing new performance indicators in response to the University Governance Review by Sir Howard Newby. This volume is timely and highly relevant to researchers, academics and policy makers in higher education with critical reflections on academic profession in Hong Kong." Ka-ho Mok, Vice President, Lingnan University, Hong Kong“/b> "A very thorough analysis of the situation of the academic profession and its environment in Hong Kong! A setting which calls for and provides opportunities for internationality of higher education in a unique way, but concurrently is tempted to make it itself a victim of the world-wide inclination of over-emphasizing visible research productivity. Thus, the case of Hong Kong is presented as both exceptional and as prototypical for the search of the balance across the functions of higher education." Ulrich Teichler, Professor, International Centre for Higher Education Research, Kassel University, Germany "Hong Kong's higher education sector is a microcosm of many of the world's other systems: intensely urban, experiencing significant transformation, attuned to rankings and peer comparison, watchful toward government intervention, anxious about funding, and always on the lookout for new performance indicators for faculty. Anyone interested in Hong Kong will find "The Changing Academic Profession in Hong Kong" a good read, but so will those of us concerned about trends, challenges, and possibilities at university systems in the rest of the world, particularly Asia." William G. Tierney, Professor, University of Southern California, USA
Lifelong Learning is now central to the Hong Kong education reform agenda. As a recent Education Commission Report put it, 'lifelong learning is the key to Hong Kong's success'. This book focuses on the post-secondary, continuing and professional education (CPE) sector. It includes contributions from Hong Kong practitioners in the field as well as from eminent international scholars who are well acquainted with CPE in Hong Kong. The book is in three parts. The first part traces recent developments in CPE in Hong Kong and offers an up-to-date account of policy, programmes and provision. A profile of lifelong learners, drawing on recent research findings, is also provided. In the second part, practitioners from a diverse range of subject disciplines offer their perspectives on the issues. This part of the book contains a wealth of ideas and examples illustrating the practice of lifelong learning in Hong Kong. The third part examines the forces shaping post-secondary education in Hong Kong and explores emergent issues. Topics discussed include: the convergence of higher and continuing education, work-based learning, cross-border collaborations with mainland China, Hong Kong vocational education and training policy, and the legal challenges posed by on-line learning. Written primarily for academic managers and teachers in the adult and continuing education sector, this book will also be of interest to (postgraduate) students of lifelong learning, comparative education researchers, CPE policy-makers, employers and human resources managers. It is a timely contribution to the current debate on the future shape of education in Hong Kong. The two Editors' combined experience in tertiary sector teaching and administration totals 57 years. They are now both working in the School of Professional and Continuing Education, The University of Hong Kong (HKU SPACE). John Cribbin is the School Secretary and Registrar; a graduate of University College London and Leicester University, he has previously worked at King's College London and the UK Open University. Peter Kennedy is a Senior Programme Director responsible for programmes in the fields of human resource management and training, as well as in English and theatre studies.
The history of the Faculty of Law at HKU is in many ways the history of the law in modern Hong Kong. Founded in 1969, the Faculty has helped transform a colonial legal backwater into a flourishing jurisdiction, in which Hong Kong maintains its common law system as a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China. The Faculty has played a vital part in fostering a legal profession firmly rooted in Hong Kong, functioning in both Chinese and English. Its early teachers pioneered scholarship on Hong Kong law. Its graduates now make up over half of Hong Kong’s Judiciary and legal profession. Over the years the Faculty has earned worldwide recognition as a centre of research in subjects ranging from human rights to financial regulation. Published to mark the Golden Jubilee, this book traces the Faculty’s rise from humble origins to its position as one of the world’s leading law schools. Drawing on archives, publications and interviews, the book explores the growth of the Faculty against the momentous events of the past 50 years. The first two chapters examine the Faculty’s prehistory when, for over a hundred years, most of Hong Kong’s lawyers were trained in England. The remaining six chapters explore alternately the Faculty’s internal history and its role in building Hong Kong’s modern legal system. ‘Dr Munn traces the Faculty of Law’s fascinating journey over half a century. From a modest beginning, it has developed into one of the finest law schools in the world. The story is told in the context of the historic events and momentous changes of this era. This illuminating and outstanding work deserves to be widely read.’ —The Hon. Andrew Li, First Chief Justice of the HKSAR (1997–2010) ‘Christopher Munn’s history of the Faculty of Law is more than the history of a remarkable educational institution—it is a history of how the law and legal culture in Hong Kong developed from modest mid-nineteenth-century colonial beginnings to its present pre-eminent position. Clearly composed in lively prose, this book is essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand modern Hong Kong and its place in the world today.’ —The Rt Hon. Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of Canada (2000–2017)
A revitalized version of the popular classic, the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, Second Edition targets new and dynamic movements in the distribution, acquisition, and development of print and online media-compiling articles from more than 450 information specialists on topics including program planning in the digital era, recruitment, information management, advances in digital technology and encoding, intellectual property, and hardware, software, database selection and design, competitive intelligence, electronic records preservation, decision support systems, ethical issues in information, online library instruction, telecommuting, and digital library projects.
Minding the Dream provides challenging, reflective, and practitioner-based information about community colleges that is data-based, clear and accessible for the general reader as well as the scholar. New employees, current leaders, graduate students, legislators, and boards of trustees need a grounded sense of the magnitude of the community college sector. Minding the Dream evokes the laudatory goals of the early pioneers of the community college movement, while accurately framing key programs and political conundrums challenging community colleges. Minding the Dream celebrates community colleges’ successes and is scrupulously honest about their failings. Community college leaders need honest information about what’s working and need to be challenged about the things that are not. State Legislatures and Congress need updated facts to assist them in making wise funding decisions regarding community colleges. Community college advocates need updated information to assist them in their advocacy work, and Higher Education programs need an updated book about community colleges to use as a basic text. These are the people who can benefit from reading Minding the Dream.
In place of a distributive justice perspective which focuses simply on equal access to universities, this book presents a broader understanding of the relationship between Chinese higher education and economic and social change. The necessity for research on the place of universities in contemporary Chinese society may be seen from current debates about and policy towards issues of educational inequality at Chinese universities. Many questions arise as a consequence: What are the limitations of neo-liberalism in higher education policy and what are the alternatives? How has the Chinese government met the challenges of educational inequality, and what lessons may be learned from its recent initiatives? How may higher education enhance social justice in Chinese society given economic, social, and cultural inequality? What may be learned from the experience of Macau, Hong Kong, and of Taiwan in terms of achieving social justice in Chinese universities? These questions are considered by a group of leading scholars from both inside and outside China.
Through a first-of-its kind qualitative exploratory study, Bibi Arfeen elucidates the multifaceted complexities and dynamics that contribute to successful higher education-to-work transition among South Asian Ethnic Minority (EM) youths in Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s recent expansion of higher education has given rise to budding academic and career aspirations amongst South Asian ethnic minority youths hoping to achieve upward social and economic mobility. Yet, existing bodies of scholarly work have yet to conceptualise the key determinants that drive an adaptive transition for these youths. This book challenges the widely held assumption that an undergraduate degree is a panacea to job acquisition and security as transitions are actively shaped by larger social, cultural, and economic trajectories potentially influencing the capabilities of ethnic minority youths. In light of their lived experiences, this book foregrounds the voices of ethnic minority youths to gauge an understanding of their higher education-to-work transitions by placing the job-preparatory and job-seeking stages as the basis of the inquiry. Suggesting implications for institutional and public policymaking for the inclusion and empowerment of EM youths, this book will appeal to scholars interested in minority studies and graduate employment, EM youths, university administrators and counsellors, NGOs working with EM communities as well as policy makers.
This insightful Handbook is an essential guide to educational policy around the world. As shifting geopolitics, intensified climate change, and widening economic inequalities persist, the need for informed educational policy is critical.