Timothy Wai Wa Yuen

Strategies and policies for Hong Kong's higher education in Asian markets: Lessons from the United Kingdom, Australia, and Singapore

Purpose – The main purpose of the present paper is twofold: to examine and compare the current strategies and policies that are employed by the UK, Australia and Singapore and to recommend appropriate strategies and policies to higher education institutions and the Hong Kong government and elsewhere that are interested in expanding their efforts in recruiting the growing number of students from other countries who are planning to study overseas.Design/methodology/approach – The data for this project were obtained primarily from documents and in‐depth interviews. Documents include government reports, policy addresses, official statistics, etc. The in‐depth interviews were conducted in Hong Kong as well as in the four studied cities – Mumbai, New Delhi, Jakarta, and Kuala Lumpur. Interviewees included government officials, academics, higher education institutions’ representatives, consultant generals, and officials from policy bodies.Findings – It is clear from the findings of this present study that a set ...

Promoting Hong Kong's higher education to Asian markets: Market segmentations and strategies

Purpose – The main purpose of this study is threefold: to analyze the current conditions of higher education services offered in the three target markets; to conduct market segmentation analysis of these markets; and to recommend the most appropriate market entry strategies for Hong Kongs education service providers.Design/methodology/approach – The data for this project were obtained primarily by questionnaire survey and interviews. The research team collected 1,370 questionnaires and conducted a total of 121 individual and focus group interviews in the four studied cities – Mumbai, New Delhi, Jakarta, and Kuala Lumpur.Findings – The study found that there was a high unmet demand for higher education overseas and that the visibility of Hong Kongs higher education was relatively weak in these Asian markets. In order to capture the continued rise of students in Asia, higher education institutions and the Hong Kong government need to work together to analyze the potential markets critically and employ mar...

School-Based Human Rights Education: Case Studies in Hong Kong Secondary Schools.

In an era of rapid globalization, space and time are seriously compressed. People from different nations, cultures, religions and other backgrounds have become much more interconnected and interdependent. Since people are rapidly intermingling, what values should be considered as standards and norms in regulating this situation, so that people of different backgrounds can relate peacefully to each other with mutual respect? United Nations (UN) human rights standards could be considered as sets of shared global norms and values in a search for global ethics. As a consequence, the UN has been eager to promote human rights education (HRE), aiming at the cultivation of a human rights culture. This paper reports on two case studies of school‐based curriculum development of HRE in two Hong Kong secondary schools. We also recommend some research directions important for the implementation of HRE in schools. It is hoped that the paper can provide some insight into the development of quality HRE in schools.

A Study of the Impact of the First Phase of the Curriculum Reform on Student Learning in Hong Kong.

Purpose – To prepare Hong Kong students to face a rapidly changing twenty‐first century, the Hong Kong Government implemented a major curriculum reform entitled Learning to Learn – The Way Forward in Curriculum Development. This reform has shaped the direction of Hong Kongs school education since 2001. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the reform from the perspectives of the major stakeholders, namely principals, teachers, and students.Design/methodology/approach – The paper was written based on the data obtained from a large‐scale study that covered over 250 primary and secondary schools, or about 20 per cent of the total population in Hong Kong. Both qualitative (focus group interviews) and quantitative methods (questionnaire survey) were employed in the study.Findings – The findings indicated that moderate progress has been made in students’ overall performance in generic skills, positive values and attitudes, language proficiency, and over the key learning areas. On the other hand...

Liberal Studies’ role in civic education: an exploratory study

Purpose – Liberal Studies (LS), as a compulsory subject for senior secondary students (S4-6) who sit for the Diploma of Secondary Education, was introduced in 2007. There has been increased discussion about merits of the subject. This paper was written based on a study the researchers conducted with LS teachers and students to probe the role LS may play in relation to civic education. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The study employed a qualitative methodology and a series of in-depth interviews were carried out with real LS teachers and students to tap their views about LS from their lived experience. Findings – Findings suggest that LS, if conducted appropriately, can be one of vehicles of civic education particularly in such matters related to enhancing social awareness and the ability to partake in public affair debates. It can also be of potential use to nurturing civic virtues in support of democratic discussion. On the other hand, its relationship with real soc...

Promoting National Identification through Civic Education: A Study of the Views of Civic Educators in Hong Kong

This article reports the findings the researchers obtained from a study of prominent civic education teachers in Hong Kong with regard to how they perceived national identification and the nurturing of national identification through civic education in Hong Kong schools. A qualitative method of data collection by in-depth semi-structured interviews was engaged. Original quotes are given whenever necessary so that readers can understand how the arguments in the article were derived and can arrive at their own conclusions. The teachers in general believed that national identity is ethnicity-based. But they agreed that national identity should coexist with other local and global civic identities. All of the teachers agreed that their schools worked assiduously in nurturing national identity. However, they also pointed out that a top-down compulsory national education programme, aimed at glorifying the nation, would not work in Hong Kong. Alternatively, students would accept civic education with a fair representation of the nation that allowed for critical judgment.

Teaching Human Rights and Rule of Law in Class: A Case Study of Two Secondary Schools in Hong Kong

Choosing two schools as a case study, the article reports how teaching approaches can differ and explains how teacher style, school ethos, and student expectation can shape pedagogical choice. Impact of the teaching and the difficulties teachers encountered are also reported. Whilst this article is probably one of the first to explore the issue of human rights and rule of law teaching in Hong Kong, the fact that it is a small case study needs to be noted when reviewing the outcomes and conclusions of the study. The writing of this article was supported by the findings obtained from a Quality Education Fund project which aimed at assisting Hong Kong teachers to teach human rights and rule of law as part of Liberal Studies, which is a new senior secondary subject.

How an Advocacy NGO Can Contribute to Political Socialization: a case study in Hong Kong

This article is based on a case study done on a Hong Kong advocacy non-government organization (NGO) that has worked as a civic educator. Civic education programmes of the NGO were observed. In-depth interviews were carried out with the personnel of the NGO. The participants in the programmes were also interviewed and questionnaires were conducted to study the impact of the programmes. This article discusses the changing nature of political socialization and explores, with the help of the case study in Hong Kong, how an advocacy NGO may contribute to political socialization by serving as a civic educator. It is hoped that this work can contribute to the literature about the possible role of advocacy NGOs in political socialization, particularly in augmenting other social institutions that are also active in this realm, such as schools and churches.

Developing Hong Kong as a Regional Education Hub: Functions, Modes, and Requirements

This chapter aims to review and analyze the functions, modes, requirements, and related issues of developing a regional education hub in the Asia-Pacific region. Taking Hong Kong as an emerging case, it examines the relationship between education hub development and higher education development as well as the strategic functions of an education hub to the future development of Hong Kong. The development of an education hub was found closely linked to the demands for higher education in the Asia-Pacific region as well as the internal dynamic of higher education and societal developments in Hong Kong. The mode of education hub development in Hong Kong should put more emphasis on world-class soft power building instead of marketization for generating financial incomes. The requirements for successful education hub development include the huge demands for provision and internationalization of higher education in the region, the strengths of the higher education sector, the policies and measures for attracting and supporting international students and education service providers, and the leadership and support of key government bureaus or central agencies. The discussion and analysis in this chapter will contribute to the related literature, policy development, and initiative implementation in areas of education hub and higher education internationalization not only in Hong Kong but also in other parts of the world.

A Critical Evaluation of the Understanding of Critical Thinking by School Teachers: The Case of Hong Kong.

There is a strong belief that critical thinking should be cultivated in schools. But it is not clear how critical thinking is understood by front-line teachers who are given the responsibility of training critical thinkers. Based on a study conducted in Hong Kong, we found that some school teachers were in favor of a “positive” image of critical thinker who is knowledgeable, prudent, being critical to the critics who are ready to criticize, and being constructive after making criticisms. We try to argue that such a positive portrayal, although uncontroversial from a detached point of view, may not be adequate in the context of Hong Kong where a critical stance toward power holders and established interests is badly needed. Without paying due attention to the “aporetic” dimension, such understanding of critical thinking would make it difficult for students to adopt a critical stance to the prevailing cultural beliefs, social values, political institutions, or economic ideologies that merit the greatest attention.