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Last October, Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang
delivered his 5th Policy Address in which he highlighted
initiatives in developing 6 industrial sectors, including
higher education, with an aim to consolidate Hong Kong's
status as a regional education hub, enhance the city's
competitiveness and complement the future development
of China. Whilst the government is actively promoting
the education industry, how would the new development
of local Master's degree programmes impact on prospective
Master's degree students?
Increased
Admission of Non-local Tertiary Students
Earlier, Premier Wen Jiabao urged Tsang to give a boost
to the city's economy by developing local higher education.
Measures to develop higher education as an industry
are therefore announced, which Tsang believes will bolster
the pluralistic, international and professional outlook
of Hong Kong.
The number of non-local students in Hong Kong, as pointed
by Tsang in his annual Policy Address, reached 9,200
in the 2008-09 school year, representing a rise of 16
percent over the previous year. The government will
consider further relaxing the relevant requirements
by allowing mainland students to pursue studies in non-local
programmes at degree level or above in Hong Kong, and
encouraging higher education institutions to step up
exchange and promotion in Asia, so as to provide a more
international environment for local students to broaden
their horizons.
On the other hand, the government will strengthen the
development of self-financing higher education, and
has reserved 2 urban sites, in Ho Man Tin and Wong Chuk
Hang respectively, for interested operators to provide
self-financing degree programmes. These 2 sites are
expected to provide some 4,000 places. In addition,
the government has decided to increase the total commitment
of the Start-up Loan Scheme by $2 billion to help institutions
meet the costs of purpose-built accommodation and facilities.
A Clear
Long-term Vision
On the initiative in developing higher education services,
Prof. Simon Shun-man Ho, Vice Rector (Academic Affairs),
University of Macau, who is also former Dean of the
School of Business at Hong Kong Baptist University and
of the School of Accountancy at the Chinese University
of Hong Kong, holds that the government lacks a clear
vision when setting out higher education policy, whilst
it also fails to identify the objectives of higher education.
"There are 2 objectives in general: 1. To consolidate
national and social culture and improve people's quality.
Economic benefit is not the main point; 2. To emphasise
practicability, enhance economic power and people's
competitiveness, which means 'everybody gets a job'.
As Hong Kong tends to the latter, it enjoys advantage
in developing professional and practical programmes,
for example Master of Business Administration (MBA)
and Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA)
programmes. These programmes are commonly seen as an
investment in career development, whilst disciplines
like arts, history and philosophy rarely draw high interest."
According to Prof. Ho, Hong Kong is seriously short
of government-funded undergraduate places, with the
admission rate of a mere 18 percent. Therefore, the
top priority is not to develop private universities,
but to establish a good foundation for local education.
Hong Kong's admission rate is really too low when compared
with that in other Asian cities. Such a low rate is
unfavourable to talent development, so the government
should review Hong Kong's vision in higher education
and design a comprehensive strategy for long-term development.
Distinctive
Programmes Give Edge
Prof. Joshua Ka-ho Mok, Associate Dean, Faculty of Social
Sciences, the University of Hong Kong says that the
government has turned a new page by developing higher
education services. Despite the correct direction, the
government is suggested to absorb neighbouring regions'
experience for a holistic approach. Take Singapore and
Malaysia for example. In the past decade, the 2 countries
have put much effort into the development of higher
education services. Singapore has been positively attracting
renowned overseas institutions to launch programmes
locally, which greatly enhances the country's reputation
in the region.
Singapore may excel Hong Kong in programme quality.
However, students may not enjoy as much academic freedom
there as in Hong Kong. Prof. Mok thus suggests that
the government discusses with the academic circle on
introducing distinctive programmes jointly offered by
overseas universities to attract overseas and mainland
students.
"With the rapid development in China, many overseas
people are interested in knowing more about China and
developing their career there. Hong Kong as the meeting
point of Chinese and Western cultures will be advantaged
by launching postgraduate programmes on Northeast China
as well as China, Hong Kong and Taiwan studies, serving
as a portal for overseas students to study Asian affairs,"he
adds.
It is true that Hong Kong holds the edge of higher education
development. Prof. Ho says, "A number of Hong Kong
higher education institutions rank high internationally.
Some MBA and EMBA programmes even reach international
level, so Hong Kong is pretty attractive in terms of
these numbers. Freedom, academic independence and bilingual
teaching in Hong Kong provide mainland students with
good learning experience, whilst good law and order
and convenient geographic location turns Hong Kong into
mainland parents?ideal choice. Some even see Hong Kong
as a stepping stone to overseas studies."
However, as Prof. Ho points out, Hong Kong's higher
education institutions place too much emphasis on theory
rather than practice, resulted in disconnection with
society that will make the city's higher education less
competitive in the region. Hong Kong's higher education
will soon lose its appeal for students unless tertiary
Institutions reform their teaching style and improve
the weaknesses of business school education.
International
Collaboration
The government is also suggested to focus on strategic
areas and encourage collaboration with overseas universities
for launching joint-degree programmes.
"At present, most of the programmes jointly launched
by local and overseas universities are top-up degree
programmes. Joint-degree programmes allow students to
study at both the local campus and the partner schoo's
campus abroad, which is a good opportunity for them
to broaden their horizons. This sounds attractive to
local, mainland and even overseas students," Prof.
Mok explains.
With the limited number of universities in Shenzhen
as well as local citizens' interest in studying in Hong
Kong, Prof. Mok suggests that the government strengthen
connection with Shenzhen and build a "university
city" there, spreading Hong Kong culture to the
mainland. Meanwhile, the government is urged to set
out more macroscopic policies and provide complementary
facilities for higher education development.
Teaching
Quality Comes First
In Prof. Ho's opinion, the government is paying too
much attention to the possible benefits brought by higher
education development, diverging from traditional Chinese
education values.
"These days, developing higher education services
has become the talking point, but few people define
it. In fact, education is rarely considered as an 'industry'.
An internationally renowned university, say Harvard
or Cambridge, won't call itself an industry too, and
won't merely focus on economic results. So, the government
should first look at teaching quality instead of having
its eyes on economic returns."
In favour of Prof. Ho's views, Prof. Mok asks Hong
Kong people to think big. "Hong Kong is the metropolis
of Asia. It is absolutely impossible to achieve internationalisation
by having only 2 sites for founding private universities.
It also sounds amusing if we identify having 1 or 2
private universities with developing higher education
services."
"Cultivating non-local students is a means to
cultural inheritance. By establishing 'soft power',
Hong Kong can influence students' thinking with its
culture. By doing so, it can promote the fusion of cultures
and knowledge and absorb quality talents to reinforce
Hong Kong's competitiveness. All these are invaluable."
Prof. Ho continues, "In Australia, schools lowered
admission requirements to increase income, which has
affected their graduates' quality. Hong Kong should
never follow such an approach of 'quantity' over 'quality'.
The first step is to enhance Hong Kong citizens' quality,
and help them develop a global vision. It's much more
important than economic returns. We shouldn't be shortsighted
and look at money all the time. Only if we change our
social values and broaden our horizons can we achieve
real internationalisation."
Promoting
Education from a Consumer's Perspective
Speaking of higher education development, Ms. Fanny
Chan, Publisher and Chief Executive Officer of JobMarket
Publishing Limited, Sing Tao News Corporation also agrees
with the "quality over quantity" concept.
She says, "With the new policy introduced, there
will be more new programmes in the market. Problems
of programme quality, the number of qualified teachers,
programme management and operation will raise the public
concern. These are also the key factors that affect
programme selection"
As revealed by Ms. Chan, a recent research shows that
90 percent of postgraduate students, full-time or part-time,
study mainly for future career development, whilst only
a small proportion of students study out of their interest.
Since adult education market is self-financing, it greatly
depends on market demands. The government should therefore
consider the perspective of the consumer market as well
when developing education services.
New Elements
to be Added
"By developing higher education services, the government
aims to secure Hong Kong's status as an education hub
and attract more non-local students, especially mainland
students, so that it can strengthen its connection with
the motherland. In the future, class mix of postgraduate
programmes will be internationalised, with a larger
proportion of mainland students. At the same time, universities
will cater for students?diverse needs through programme
adjustment."
"I think there won't be a big change of programme
framework, but new elements will be added to elective
courses, such as topics on leadership, market regulation
in the post-economic crisis world, corporate social
responsibility, etc. As many local and overseas students
are interested in knowing about China, I believe that
the new programmes will provide more Asia and China
business case analyses," she continues.
With so many programme choices, students may find themselves
confused about what to select. Ms. Chan notes that,
today, new elements related to career development are
incorporated in many quality MBA programmes. Some faculties
even set up career offices to assist students in employment.
For programme selection, Ms. Chan reminds students to
learn from the government's experience in promoting
associate degree programmes and seriously consider factors
including programme quality, teacher qualification and
recognition. In addition, they may see whether the programme
contains any added values.
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