The editors of First Step in Four asked me to write an article about the future development of UIC. I readily agreed. As President of UIC, it is indeed incumbent upon me to share my thoughts and ideas with students, staff, parents and the public. Besides, by so doing, I hope I will not only satisfy the expectation for transparency, but also enhance the effective management of the College. A college should be led by a team rather than one or two persons. In this spirit, I have suggested to the editors of First Step in Four that more ideas should be sought from other members of the College, especially from the vice presidents, deans and faculty so that, together, we may build a better university.
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Prof. Xu Jialu, Chairman of the UIC Council and President Ng Ching-Fai
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UIC was established six years ago and has produced two cohorts of graduates. I retired from Hong Kong Baptist University last September and have been engaged fully in the management and development of UIC since then. Whenever I looked back to the time when Prof. Xu Jialu, Chairman of the UIC Council, and I were planning to set up the College in 2005, I couldn't help but recall the amazing (to a certain extent, unexpected) endorsement and support of HKBU and BNU. So to me, the birth of the College was indeed a miracle. And the recruitment of Prof. Edmund S. T. Kwok and Prof. Sze-Yong Zee, two distinguished scholars from Hong Kong, to begin the pioneering work has helped crystallize the miracle. They have succeeded, together with the assistance of a small team of teaching and administrative staff and some support from HKBU and BNU, in surmounting numerous difficulties encountered by the College and managed, at last, to put UIC on the map of Zhuhai.
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President Ng Ching-Fai and Executive Vice-President Prof. Kwok Siu-tong, Vice-President Prof. Zee Sze Yong, Vice-President Prof. Zhang Cong
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If the last six years is a period of "genesis", the next stage of the life of the College should be a period focusing on a healthy and sustainable development to consolidate and deepen the achievements of the past. Towards these ends, I have set the following targets, as a starter, to guide our work:
1. Review all the rules and regulations generated in the past six years so that they could better serve the College's next stage of development;
2. Build up an effective and loyal management team for the harmonious and smooth operation of the College;
3. Continue to improve the teaching quality and learning outcome, and strengthen the quality assurance mechanism towards the provision of an overall quality education for the students;
4. Further refine and perfect the Whole Person Education (including the Four Point Education) model;
5. Expand and fine tune the structure of the academic programmes and build a brand name for some of them, including the design of a unique curriculum in national and arts education.
6. Enhance the international vision, presence and competence of the College through the harmonization of Chinese and Western cultures and international exchange and cooperation;
7. Set up research centres and programmes for masters, doctors and post-doctoral fellows to foster the research potential of the faculty and the College;
8. Promote the philosophy of liberal arts education and UIC's own educational model and innovative practices.
Greater efforts and more creative thinking are required in the next developmental stage of the College. I welcome your feedback and suggestions. To China's educational sector, the name of the College was once unknown. But now, public awareness of UIC has been heightened, and the College's impact is felt in many quarters. At the same time, I am fully aware that there are new challenges as well as numerous difficulties ahead.
UIC has been built upon multilateral support, mutual efforts, and selfless sacrifices from various people. I am confident that with your continuous devotion and contribution, we will be able to build a brighter future for UIC and for China's educational reform, and nurture more talents for the Pearl River Delta Region and beyond.
April 16, 2011
(Translated from Chinese version)
