Page 9 - FSTE A5 Handbook

Foreword

This book is a harvest of knowledge and insights made since 2000 in creating new pathways
for graduates in good standing from sub-degree programs to enter universities and progress
toward degrees on a par with students who enjoyed four years of instruction at those
universities. Better articulation is critical to the success of this sector that these “second
chance” students, who by their skill, hard work and good instruction, should have credible
pathways to completing their studies at a university in Hong Kong. Without the inspiration
of this goal to be within reach, this sector of the tertiary system would wilt. It is vital to
Hong Kong that these young people perceive this system to be fair, and not rigged against
them in favor of a pre-determined social elite. That means that low results on high-stakes
exams at a young age may not necessarily pre-destine them to a second-tier track in life.
A fully achieving society depends on its ability to offer its young people credible pathways
from school, through clear and multiple options of tertiary education, into employment in
the Hong Kong workplace. This book is dedicated to completing and refining an articulation
system of open and efficient transfers of academic credits from sub-degree to university.

The second challenge goes beyond this book, but also bears mention. If the sub-degree
sector continues to be limited to local students, whose numbers we know will decline, it will
lose important capacity for teaching and learning that has been built up with great effort
over the past decade. Furthermore, this sector can play an important, still unimagined,
role in building Hong Kong as a higher education hub in Asia. Sub-degree providers can
offer a wider range of instructional programs, in both content and in teaching methods, to
non-local Chinese and international students than are currently on offer by the universities.
A step in this direction is to conceive of Hong Kong having one, rather than two, tertiary
education systems. We may be surprised by what the next decade could bring with better
articulation and more open pathways leading into, and out of, all academic programs in
Hong Kong.

Dr Glenn Shive
Executive Director
Hong Kong-America Center

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