Dr Wendy Chan (Associate Vice-President)
Quality Assurance in higher education is primarily concerned with ensuring the quality of teaching and learning. It is a major concern as governments worldwide offer higher education opportunities to an increasing number of their populace. Therefore, many countries (e.g., Australia, the USA and the UK) have set up independent agencies to undertake regular quality audits or other forms of quality assurance reviews of their colleges and universities. In Hong Kong, the University Grants Committee (UGC) for years performed this role through conducting, for example, the Management Review (1998-1999), the Teaching and Learning Quality Process Reviews (1995-1997 and 2001-2003) and the Performance and Role-related Funding Scheme (2004). Those reviews aimed to make sure that effective quality assurance mechanisms were in place in all the public-funded institutions. With the growing public interest in quality issues, a Quality Assurance Council (QAC) was set up in April 2007 under the aegis of the UGC ((www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/doc/QAC/publication/auditmanual.pdf)).
2. In December 2009, as part of its audit of Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), several members of the QAC review panel paid a visit to UIC. Apart from evaluating the College based on a self-assessment report, the panel met with quite a few staff and students. In its review report afterwards, the QAC praised the efforts of HKBU to ensure the quality of degree programmes that the University offers outside of Hong Kong. Indeed, HKBU monitors closely the quality assurance mechanisms of its off-shore operations including those of UIC. The College has to strictly adjust to and abide by the rules and regulations and the QA procedures of HKBU, which for example sets very strict quota for the award of First Class Honours. In the last two years, the College had to raise the cumulative Grade Point Average (cGPA) from 3.4 cGPA, which is the threshold required for the award of First Class Honours, to 3.51 for the 2005 cohort and to 3.45 for the 2006 cohort, in order to comply with the standard of First Class Honours set by HKBU. As we explained to some concerned parents and students, in all cases of classification of degrees, the cGPAs cited in the Undergraduate Handbook are indicative only. This is clearly stated in the HKBU Bulletin/Calendar and the UIC Undergraduate Handbook (see General Regulations for Undergraduate Degree Programmes 11.24 in the 2010-11 HKBU Bulletin/Calendar and 10.4 in the 2010-11 UIC Handbook). Similar to the Senate of HKBU, UIC Senate has the right to make exceptions in the application of these indicative cGPAs. The actual cGPA for First Class Honours etc. will vary in accordance with the final decision made by the HKBU Senate for that academic year.
3. UIC also expects students to achieve a high academic standard. That is, the academic goal of UIC's students should be to strive for excellence and the highest standard and not mediocrity. For example, in the past years we have gradually increased the standard and quality of the students being admitted, from band 3 in 2005 to band 1 in most provinces. This year, the College will admit band 1 students in all provinces except Guangdong. It is hoped that the educational authority of Guangdong Province will allow the College to admit band 1 students in the near future. As we raise the quality of the students we admit, students also expect us to set very high standards for them (I hope, for themselves as well). Unfortunately, grade inflation is a ‘worldwide' problem. If I may say, it is becoming more and more a big concern to responsible teachers who wish to maintain high academic standards. From the point of view of UIC, we must ensure that we produce graduates that are employable, therefore we must show the world that UIC students' standard/quality is extremely good and that the College's honours degrees are as good as they say. In other words, they are not inflated and they contain as the Chinese would say, ‘no water.' In order to achieve these ends, UIC has got no choice but to be very strict in controlling the percentage of students to be awarded First Class Honours. UIC must also be very careful in giving high grades to students. If we don't do that then UIC will be criticized being irresponsible and setting a very bad example. The Chinese education authority wanted HKBU (and BNU) to come to establish UIC in Zhuhai with the understanding that we will set high academic standards. So far I do not think that we have disappointed anyone.
4. Grading according to a pre-determined distribution of grades is a "norm-referenced" assessment of student performance, which has been used by Hong Kong universities including HKBU for many years. Under norm-referenced assessment, students compete against each other and the top marks or grades go to the best students. Those at the bottom of the ranking receive lower marks or grades, simply because they are not as good as their peers. However, recent development shows that the norm-referenced model arguably is not quite aligned with the outcome-based teaching and learning (OBTL) being advocated in many advanced educational systems today, including that of Hong Kong. Therefore, HKBU is now reviewing the norm-referenced assessment model versus another assessment model, the criterion-referenced assessment. Criterion-referenced assessment is designed to assess changes in student performance as a result of learning. It evaluates the learning of students against a set of pre-defined criteria. The grade awarded under the criterion-referenced assessment system is intended to directly reflect how well the student has met the criteria.
5. UIC looks forward to the review currently being undertaken at HKBU and Senate will be informed of the review in the deliberation of the issue of grade distribution with this knowledge in mind. However, until HKBU changes from the present norm-referenced assessment model to the criteria-referenced assessment model, UIC will have to continue with the former and students will be graded according to a pre-determined grade distribution. Most importantly, as UIC is a very new university, whatever we do or whatever method of assessment we adopt the important thing is that we must always uphold the highest standard and good name of the College. If we are not strict and careful, the brand name of UIC will go down the drain. If that happens, this will be disastrous for UIC as well as for our students.
6. Finally, I am sure that you will agree with me that it is important that we should not become an institution with students focusing on (or over obsessed with) grades only. GPA is important but it is definitely not the only indicator of ‘success.' The College's educational philosophy is to educate the whole person, intellectually, professionally, morally, spiritually, culturally, socially and physically. Thus, students' achievements in other areas such as sports, volunteer work and environmental concerns, etc., are equally important to us. The success of the "whole person educational philosophy" is evidenced by the fact that many of our graduates have been accepted by renowned and top universities overseas and many are now pursuing their careers in well-known international companies. I am sure some of them were selected because the universities or companies concerned trusted UIC's GPA score (because "it has high gold content,' to use a Chinese saying) and they recognized the other or overall qualities of our graduates. I have therefore every reason to believe that we are on the right track. Dear teachers and students, may I urge you to keep up with the good work? Thank you.
Note: This article was presented to the Senate at its meeting on 13 April 2011 when the committee discussed grading guidelines.
