Higher Education for Tomorrow Summer Institute

7th June 2016 Session 1: Sustainability in higher education

Presenter: Ann Kildahl, Sustanaiblitiy Manager from HKU Sustanaiblity Office

Venue: RM206, Runme Shaw Building, The University of Hong Kong

Date: 7 June, 2016 (9:00 – 10:30)

- Sustainable development Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the

ability of future generations to meet their own needs Definition form The Broundtland Report in 1987 (the major definition)

Universities all around the world are doing this and it has consequences. International. Much more happening in publications, journals, conferences and so on. Some countries make in compulsory: some countries require the universities to take actions, for example the UK, Singapore.- Sustainability in HE: Development, Drivers

Voluntary Declarations Networks/Consortia Green ratings/rankings Academic journals , conference

Compulsory Government legislation

Parallel with famous university

- What are the famous universities? Harvard (Green Building Standards) Tongji Green Campus (Shanghai) building energy system that helps to track

and integration into curriculum Yale (sustainability strategic plan): from backward to forward role. National university of Singapore (new campus = green building). Ecole polytechnique de Lausanne (solar power plant on the roof of the

university). UBC: all the component for a campus to be successful – community that cares,

government legislation. Best case scenario. The building generated electricity etc

Asian Campus sustainability network: the development network Korean association for green campus initiative Knowledge Network Initiative of Thailand CASE-net in Japan

One of the development factors influencing sustainability is the networks.

HKU is a part of a network, we have created a consortium. - regenerative sustainable development

the greening university toolkit

the purposethe curriculum (are we teaching across the curriculum)are we supporting research on sustainability (economic, environment, social, governance)service (partnerships)campus-planningare we going beyond zero? Regenerative system, do we do more that just being less bad? Can we produce something on campus?The social side of the sustainability. Campus as a living laboratory – can we use the spaces to teach and produce change?

Greenwash – seeming not being sustainable.A list of themes that take the definitions in more complete formsResearch

funding papers conferences

Education integrated in curriculum (cross-disciplinary) sustainability literacy

Governance and administration sustainability policy environmental management plans and systems environmental auditing

Community outreach what are we doing

Physical campus energy, carbon and climate change

Water useMaterial flows

Sustainability in HE: influencing factors financial constraints government regulations can promote or stop sustainability climate and geography physical infrastructure institutional practices (bureaucracy) culture (Chinese and institutional).

Sustainability at HKU

Social issues – ahead of his time. Smoke free campus.Better access for handicapped peopleDiscrimination policiesNo shark fin policyWaste policy

What is done at HKU?HKU has policiesCampus environmental impact

buildings water waste (food waste including)

Outreach sustainable HK consortium (local outreach) member of AASHE – international outreach international campus sustainability network

Communications website

On-going projects strategic planning green revolving fund food waste pedestrian priority plan (car-free campus) roof-top farms (work with vegetarian restaurant) the sustainability literacy test behavioural change initiative (collaboration with blue sky energy = in the

room each student are able to see their own energy consumption). Global trends and initiatives

global issues (pollution, public health etc) campus environmental impact

energy water conservation and management waste minimization and recycling

social and economic indicators integrated solutions

energy efficiency -> net positive, regenerative systems waste conservation -> grey water recycling waste recycling -> waste to energy. Urban farming reducing car use - > multi-modal etc

Q and AQ: Sustainability is an issue that is usually supported on Board level or Senate. Do you have a sustainable leader who supports the initiatives?A: No.Right now with the Green revolving fund initiative and sustainability strategic plan initiative we hope it will allow us to have support from the Council. There will be a small body overlooking the fund, and at least one council member should be on that body. That is our goal. And the new sustainability strategic plan will establish a new government structure, which is very important.So it is important for us to have support from top-level.But now we have some supporters from faculties: like we have a faculty that runs masters degree in environmental management, this program is supported by HSBC.

Q: Many of the examples you give us are add on student activities, are kind of extra-curriculum activities. Most of us here are professors: can you help us by elaborating the three essential tasks? The examples of cross-disciplinary courses, as well as yesterday we heard about core curriculum. How do you incorporate sustainable literacy (not just as a test) in core curriculum? And as a discipline professional, how do I integrate sustainability in my program?A: This is not my expertise, but I know some examples and can share a little.One thing, in our curriculum we claimed to support the UN sustainability goals. Disciplinary association network of sustainability in the USA.Core curriculum courses are cross-disciplinary: so for ex, the course is on food. So faculty from different disciplines will talk about food and they will touch upon sustainability issues. A commitment form the top it frees up a lot of creativity from teachers and other members. people are very creative and smart. Problem of finding time and energy for such initiatives, esp at research universities where junior faculty has to work hard to conduct the research and publish articles. How do they find time for sustainability initiatives? It can be very hard to reach others while you are under pressure.

Q: Infrastructure. Can you tell us how The Centennial campus was constructed. I heard that you had to move the water reservoirs? So for this project how did you plan the sustainability?A: Yes, the Centennial campus was described as an engineering wonder. So the deal was the following: HKU negotiated with the government and the government said that the university would be able to use the land if it will relocate the reservoirs. So HKU relocated them and we had a great spot, we did not have to cut down the trees around.

Q: While walking around HKU I have seen a lot of water dashing out. Is it used,

reused or collected anyhow?A: It is not used. The water services department does a good job by providing clean water but in general there is no plan. Not comprehensive strategy.

Q: Are there any other initiatives concerning student resident halls?A: Student resident halls are independently run. They are all quite different. But this major project that helps to measure students’ energy use in the rooms we will provide money to make it possible.Because it is an energy saving opportunity we will provide the money to expand this project to others halls.

Comments from Prof. Kai Ming ChengHow many of you heard for the first time about sustainability in HE?Is it applied in your own institution? Molly : university science Malaysia. A new VC came along and totally disregarded what have been done by the previous one.

Q: Sustainability can be just a regulation. But how you make sure that a person is doing something?A: It is hard to ensure. You have to teach people, the culture of practice.To take a bottle and a can just is not right. How do you teach them? If you were a champion how will you change peoples’ behavior?Running training sessions for students. Education faculty is paper-less faculty.

We need champions and advocatesCampion make things happen. In many universities – it is hard to put on agenda. Very deep and if a university can not take a lead, then who will?That is leaving something behind for future generations that now don't have a vote.Money is the issue. Part of issues if both technical and behavioral. Methodology that changes people behavior. Safety raps – they know what to do, we should do something like that.Student ambassadors. There is and NGO among students.

In many institutions is not yet on the agenda.We created that group the consortium on sustainability in HK. That created peer-pressure. We look what other universities are doing in terms of sustainability. Trying to learn from them and do better.We are racing to keep up with our colleagues.

Session 2: Assessment in higher education

Presenter: Prof Cecilia Chan, head of professional development, Centre for the

enhancement of teaching and learning

Venue: RM206, Runme Shaw Building, The University of Hong Kong

Date: 7 June, 2016 (11:00 – 12:30)

- Expectation of this workshop

How to move from traditional system to performance based assessment?

(Cambodia)

Who are you dealing with, students or professors, and what are you dealing

with, research or teaching? (professors; support professor how to teach;

changing the traditional way to more innovative way to engage the students

given that the generation has changed; teachers are teaching and students are

learning; motivate students; generic skills)

- Challenges?

- What do you really want to find out?

- Formative assessment

Participation is rewarded with chips

- Sharing experience

First day in college, how did you feel?

Anxious, shock, terrified, excited, confused, curious, how to sneak away back

home

- Things to find out about your students

Understand the transition from secondary school to college

Ice-breaking to know your students

Prior knowledge

Everybody comes from the tradition, but people change. What are students’

perceptions?

Religious

Generation gap: students know how to use digital devices faster and better

than teachers

- Stephen D. Brookfield: if you don’t know the students, their culture, their

knowledge, you don’t know how to teach them.

- OBASL: learning outcomes/teaching and learning activities/assessment method

- Video: awareness test

- It’s easy to miss something you’re not looking for

If you don’t tell students what you want from them, how do they go to

deeper learning?

- Old’ Times

Curriculum is basically the most important thing

Teaching methods

Assessment methods

Objectives

When they finish the exam, they forget everything

Video: constructive aligning assessment (about outcome base)

Align your assessment with your learning

Why the students are assessed.

- Bloom’s taxonomy

How can we assess the students?

From memorizing to application

To understand the theory and to apply it

- Assessment drives learning

- Definition of assessment: learning can be knowledge, attitude, and beliefs, how to

assess?

- Assessment Vs Evaluation

Is there a need to move away from examinations?

We use assessment. Assessment is more of umbrella chain.

What are the purposes of assessment?

Make sure they learn; to see development; to improve; to motivate them; for

validation;

- Formative and summative assessment

Try to push professors to do more formative assessment during the term not

at the end of the term

- What are students doing when they are learning well?

Interest in the subjects; reflection; work in group; laugh and smile; asking

and searching; resourcing more; knowledge develop; don’t at phone; disagree

and argue more; help others; provide critical insights; to give questions not

just answers; a wow

What you told us is not from books but from your experience

Bring your experience into the classroom

- Assessment drives learning. How can we, as teachers ensure students learn well

with assessment?

Peer assessment; make objectives clear; do case study, different methods; the

alignment; from motivating to measuring to challenging; benchmark;

simulative environment; structured hierarchy;

Experiential learning

- HKU senate approved recommendations on assessment issues and implications in

the new 4-year undergraduate curriculum

Moderation of grades

Diverse form of assessment

GPA, standardized

Feedback: when and how to give feedback (e.g. Assessment Rubric); should

be given to students during the course; better for students to assess each

other; ask them to video each other)

Question: In Cambodia context, feedback is not very useful. Very superficial.

(Suggestion: Do it in an anonymous way.)

Peer assessment: even more strict than teachers

- Telegraph: teachers “bias” gives better marks to favorite pupils

In general, we do!

Give better marks to troublesome students

Invite ‘bad’ students to lunch

- Generic skills: to help career development

How to assess commonsense?

Educational aims

I.Q. gets you hired, but it is E.Q. that gets you promoted?

- It’s about interpersonal, it’s not just about career.

- Can we assess them? Should we assess them?

Difficulties in designing and teaching generic skills

- Originality: draw a poster of your interpretation of originality

Very subjective

Confused: they don’t know what to expect

One assessment might not work

Motivate each other as well

Reflection by Professor Kai-ming Cheng:

As a matter of accountability you need an assessment. Why you assess and how you

assess, it is just a beginning. Not all institutions have a unit for teaching and learning.

It is not only about the assessment. There are a lot of other things. We need a

champion in the university, otherwise you will not understand what is the

advancement in teaching, learning and assessment. It is important.

Session 3: Visit of the faculty of medicine

Presenter: Gabriel Leung. Dean of medical school

Date: 7 June, 2016 (2:00 – 4:00)

Question and Answer

Q: We asked one of your students what is the proportion of classmates that come from

families with medical background? And his response was around 50 % of students

here have a background from medical profession (family with a medical background).

But what is the trend? Do you have any data?

A. This particular young person does not know the statistics. This year HKU is

admitting 130th class. It has been the same the last 20 years and the number is 10% of

students have the background (1 or both parents with medical degree). very constant.

Q: What is the admission process? How many places are apart form JUPAS?

A: There are the following procedures: interviews, tests, and a personal statement

(essay). Plus for some exceptional cases each high school principal has got 2 letters

that they could write. So they can nominate 2 of the students to enter the university.

But only 2 in the entire graduating class.

Q: Medical graduates in Cambodia become too much money-oriented thus

professional ethics is down. How it works in HK? What about ethics of HKU

graduates? How do we instil this question of ethics in the graduates?

A: I don't think you can teach ethics quickly. It should be engrained in the practice-

culture. It is not just on the supply side in other words in the hospitals. It is throughout

the fabric of the general public and is highly correlated with the state of the socio-

economic development. 40 years ago, the corruption was rampant here, in HK.

Probably worse than what you are experiencing now in Cambodia.

But, does it mean that when your GDP or GNP goes up that you can take it for

granted as a matter of course? That you will be able to root out corruption? Unless

you do something specifically about it, NO. Actions should be taken.

Doctors are not saints. Doctors who are not closely watched by society are not better

than the Lehman brothers bankers.We are a profession – thus we enjoy privileges in

society. But in return to these privileges you have to put your groups interests below

that of general public.

But it is empty rhetoric unless you put some regulatory mechanisms in place, which

are the “stick” and the incentive system “carrot” to allow doctors to do the right thing.

This it is the work between nudging and making sure that people are at the straight

and narrow. It takes a lot of work.

Prerequisite is a social-economic development but that is only a bare minimum. What

you also need is generally clean environment (like corruption-free) and then specific

for health care: recognize that there is a social contract between the profession and

community.

Nowadays, what the doctors forget, well, they actually never learnt. As what we put

them through is a technical (vocational) program.

We did not use to require doctors to know very much other then very technical skills.

Most doctors tend to emphasise the special rights and privileges, half of the equation,

but forget the responsibility part of the equation.

To turn the philosophy into practice it is a lot of regulatory treatment. HK in this

regard has been regressing; we are becoming more protective against our own people.

We do not allow any foreign trained doctors to come in even though they may be HK-

Chinese.

There is an exam for international diplomas holder but the pass rate is 10%.

This protective regime from an economic perspective works better than the OPEC.

Q: HK economy is service-oriented but why HK is not embracing the legacy of open

port?

A: Nowadays we are 89-90 % service-economy. We should open our doors to all

high-value services in order to bring the new growth. Medical schools have their own

role. Teaching is not enough. It is easier to do the bad thing. Thus do not let the white

coat fool you.

Q: International admissions: what is the quota of international students?

A: No quota. At least 75% from the JUPAS pool. The rest SAT, degree holders.

You have to be proficient in conducting a conversation in Cantonese.

Q: What is the gap between public and private services.

A: Half and half.

Q: What is the difference in salaries?

A: 3 times.

Q: Why they work in public sector?

A: because they are crazy, like me.

Q: MBBS – is it recognized abroad?

A: Yes, some countries accept it: UK, Australia, and Singapore.

In the UK if you have a HK specialist licence you submit documents to the UK and

you can be accepted. HKU exams are conjoint with a UK college.

Q: How are the students admitted to the university?

A: We don't have national exam for medical schools. For OXBridge, you need to

write a different set of exam to enter the medical school. But this is because the SAT

exam has problems.The special exam at the undergraduate level is not needed.But for

graduate level is helpful. For example, in the USA and Canada to enter medical

graduate school one needs to pass organic chemistry and English comprehension.

Such exam serves the function to level the playfield.There are so many different

pathways. You need a common platform.

But if you do that at undergraduate level that is a duplication of effort.

Q: Has the curriculum changed?

A: Curriculum changes every 10 years or so. 1997 the current curriculum.

From a discipline-based curriculum to a hybrid PBL, North America.

3+3+4 reform. We wanted to add broadening learning experiences.

3 years of the 6 years program. 3d year – tailored enrichment year. Spend a semester

in Yale or Fudan or any other university. CCC areas of inquiry. Taylor program and

they get to see the world. Such an initiative is very expensive. But we are heavily

subsidised. So it wont affect the fees.

Prof. Kai Ming Cheng: As a colleague, as a peer and as a patient, I appreciate the

professionalism among our graduate doctors. What do you think makes some

professors remain in the professorship for a long time while their peers can make a lot

of money outside the public sector?

A: HK is a very small place where you can have heritage passing on the torch.

You get inspired to such an extent that you will actually act it out.

But you make sure that personal circumstances would allow that.

Some people are quite well off. They see that as a way to giving back.

An alternative way: I don't make as nearly as much as my student.

But truth be talk I am paid respectably. I don't need to worry about likelihood.

You can rely on people good will and higher aspirations and inner needs.

But this is a disposition of a really wealthy country.

We actually pay all doctors quite generously.

Professor of medicine is paid more than other university professors.

Q: HKU and Chinese U is there a difference?

A: The difference of cultures.

But does it mean that the graduates have different qualifications in the end of the day?

I don't think so. The outcomes are nearly the same.

But the learning process in two institutions is different.

That's why I ask candidates on the choice they are making: whether you really you

will become a doctor? What kind of learning style suits you best?

The end of the day: similarly competent.

1) We are 129, Chinese U is 45 years old.

2) HKU had “better people” simply because we have a longer history. But does

it mean that a graduate is less qualified – no, but can you smell them form a mile

away – yes.

3) Best place to mold character is high school.

4) Ethos and structure the curriculum

Internet generation

Q: The good thing: it forces all the teachers to really a good job. To beat the Harvard

X MOOC and add the high value added components. So it pushes competition.

The bad thing: if you go and do the lecture in a class, you will have a class browsing

Facebook, not listening to you. How do you capture the students’ imagination and

curiosity?

A: The authoritarian way is the easiest.

Or you can inspire them so much that them will not even open the computer.

PHD the non MD. Very international. Substantially the biggest group is the mainland

chinese.

The clinical staff is predominantly local. But the majority of us had international

experience. The gender ration is 50-50

235 – government will not allow as to deviate from this number.

HK is centrally planned medical economy.

We interview around 700-800 every year.

Q: Grades and doctors?

A: No school has done a study from their admission to 50 years.

Q: How do you define a good doctor?

A: My personal bias: taking in potential doctors from high school is potentially

wrong. You should give them to bump around, get completely crazy, and learn a bit

about independence, let them become more mature. If you still want to become a

doctor, I will take that.

Q: During the admission process, do you have an index?

A: I don't agree with affirmative action.

I screen board scholarships. We especially reward and attract kids that have off the

track and came back on the track. We want to take you out from you environment and

give you the residential experience where you will live with a rich kid who has never

learnt what is a failure.

HKU – bias of attracting people from good background.

Education is increasingly monopolized not by tycoons but by the professionals.

I worry about and it is very serious where you professional middle class starts to self-

perpetuate. It is dangerous.

Upper-middle class replicating and monopolizing opportunities then you start getting

the problem.

That's why I want to give a change to those who are almost there.

I want those people have that aspiration, HKU just as much as my school as that who

are more privileged.

For a year we have been going around schools who are not that good.

About half of HK schools are quite bad.

3 schools send 5-10%. top 5 schools will send 30-40% of the class.

This is the situation of the HKU in general. A long tail of under-represented schools.

We are very sensitive to make sure we don't do reverse bias. We don't want to make it

especially difficult for rich kids as it is not their fault.

Q: What you personal future plan ?

A: I stopped planning 10 years ago. I done all I wanted to do. The determinant is

simply based on simply where I can put the most value. Where I am going next? I

don't know. But definitely I am not going to stay here forever.