Established in 1994 and with a heritage of 70 years of teacher training dating to the former colleges of education, the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) is the only University Grants Committee-funded institution dedicated solely to professional teacher education in Hong Kong. The HKIEd was formally established by statute in April 1994 - upon recommendation by the Education Commission in 1992 - by uniting the former Northcote College of Education, Grantham College of Education, Sir Robert Black College of Education, the Hong Kong Technical Teachers' College and the Institute of Language in Education. In October 1997, the Institute moved to its new campus in Tai Po. Its state-of-the-art facilities includes the Mong Man Wai Library, Shu Wah Computer Centre, Arthur Samy Language Learning Centre, Croucher Science Laboratory, HY Cheung Sports Hall, Pengximing Chinese Arts and Culture Resource Studio, … just to name a few. In addition, a kindergarten and a local primary school, namely the HKIEd HSBC Early Childhood Learning Centre and the HKIEd Jockey Club Primary School, were established in 2001 and 2002 respectively. The two of them have jointly provided excellent avenues for our staff and students who can contribute innovative practices pertaining to early childhood and primary education. The Institute was granted self-accrediting status in 2004. Currently, we provide doctoral, master and undergraduate degrees, post-graduate diplomas, certificate courses and a range of in-service programmes to around 7,000 pre-service students and serving teachers. In mid-2007, we promulgated a Development Blueprint for the next decade, outlining our aspiration to become a University of Education and to extend our scope of educational and research activities, our footprint and our academic impact within the Asia-Pacific Region. Today, 84% of Hong Kong’s primary school teachers and 30% of secondary school teachers are graduates of HKIEd or its predecessor colleges of education. We are a pioneer in early childhood education and have trained, over the years, some 80% of Hong Kong’s kindergarten teachers. We emphasize the provision of total learning experience to our students, who in turn will become inspiring teachers to their own students in schools. As the largest teacher education provider in Hong Kong, our focus remains teacher education, guided by an “Education-plus” framework. Under this framework, we continue to broaden the range of our disciplines and subject specialization. Our programmes reflect the integration of subject knowledge with pedagogy and teaching skills. Our academic planning processes ensure that the programmes meet and respond to the future needs of educators. Our partnerships and school support are geared towards needy areas such as language education, creative arts, music, physical education, early childhood education, liberal studies, special educational needs, and small class teaching. We are active in research, particularly applied research in education policy and practice, and often involving the participation of local schools. Our research covers a broad range of areas including curriculum development, learning & assessment, education leadership, languages and linguistics, education psychology, lesson studies, comparative education, inclusion & diversity in education, citizenship studies, early childhood education, education policy, and information technology in education. We collaborate with other tertiary institutions locally and overseas and have established an extensive network of partnerships with local schools. Teachers are an invaluable resource within the education system. At the HKIEd, we are meeting the challenge to nurture a generation of professionally trained graduate teachers who will support Hong Kong’s transformation into a knowledge-based society. Creative, energetic and committed, these teachers will serve the more than 2,000 early childhood, primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong as agents of change, facilitating and implementing education reforms that will make a profound and lasting impact on the quality of our society. With our enlarged vision, we seek to better serve educators and teachers in the Asia Pacific Region.
