A University Title

Yesterday, the UGC announced that the HKIEd's application for a university title was rejected and the Review Group Report in the meantime was also released. In the document, two proposed ideas were recommended to the Institute. First, the notion of 'merger' is an alternative like NIE in Singapore and IOE in Britain. Second, the Institute should develop and become a multidisciplinary institution which attends to the wider needs of society such as offering various undergraduate and postgraduate programs other than education.

Through the intranet, the President sent us an e email that the option one was non-issue. Actually he would attempt to focus all his efforts and put all available resources to turn the Institute into a university more than teacher-training organization. I think his determination to fight for the university title is evident and unambiguous. No matter what statue we were given, academic, teaching and administrative staffs are all working hand in hand to excel ourselves. Perhaps, the most unhappy ones would be students. It is understandable they were disappointed because they also worked hard to fight for the title. And most colleagues actually told students to work hard and behave well if they want to 'own' this university title. Who knows? Maybe after three years or another three years... We may become a unique "university", specializing at both education and social science disciplines.