Introduction
Professor Bruce Macfarlane
Dean, FEHD
The need for a strategy
Over the last few years, the Faculty of Education and Human Development (FEHD) has identified a vision, a mission, values and priorities, and aspirations. This strategy will identify how we are going to achieve these commitments, and will provide us with a clear and positive future direction.
Our process
The development of this strategy has been a collaborative, bottom-up process involving academic, teaching, administrative and support staff from across FEHD. The six departments of the Faculty – curriculum and instruction, early childhood education, education policy and leadership, psychology, international education, and special education and counselling – developed their own strategies based on the following four pillars:
• education and the student experience
• research and enterprise
• internationalisation and local engagement
• our staff and ways of working
A faculty strategy was then developed using these pillars. It is based on department strategies, the University’s strategic plan (2016-2025), and emerging agendas locally, regionally and internationally. A retreat was held and task groups were established, led by the Dean and the Associate Deans. A draft faculty strategy was then refined by consulting the Faculty Development Advisory Committee, the Heads of Department and Dean forum, and the Faculty Management Committee. A lot of inter-professional teamwork has gone into this process. This document is the result.
Our principles
A strategy is not a wish list. It is a plan that reflects realistic ambitions. Each pillar of our strategy, at faculty and department level, will be supported by a clear set of actions. This means that our strategy is a living document, not a static wish list confined to a website.
In other words, it is really happening and we will keep track of our own progress over the next three years.
Our aims
Over the next three academic years, 2022-25, FEHD will:
• strengthen our distinctive reputation as the leading teacher education provider in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area (GBA)
• ensure that our students benefit from pedagogical innovation through virtual and authentic learning experiences and an enhanced focus on cultivating their global and regional perspectives
• build further on our world-class research reputation by focusing on global inter-disciplinary themes and increasing the quality and impact of our scholarship in the process
• deepen our internationalisation and local engagement through international and regional student recruitment and high-quality partnerships
• enhance a working environment that is efficient, equitable, and that emphasises the well- being of all our staff
We are a diverse faculty of social scientists from many disciplinary backgrounds. What we have in common is a commitment to further enhance the student experience, respond to the needs of our community partners, address issues of social justice, and tackle the key inter-disciplinary questions that face our world through research and knowledge transfer activities. I believe that this strategy will help us to do these things even better.