Some of you may have noticed that for our 20^th Anniversary, we have been using the slogan: Celebrating 20 years in Engagement in Lifelong Learning. We have come a long way in twenty years. We used to plan many exciting innovative courses on table napkins before, but now all our programmes have to go through very elaborative quality assurance process. There are well over a dozen accreditation or validation exercises that take place in the School every year. Quality is Number One in practice.

Our programmes have to comply with strict quality assurance systems, and our work is scrutinised at three levels: university, regional and national levels.

At the University
There is a four tier system for the approval, monitoring and review of programmes offered by SCOPE. The Annual Quality Assurance Report of the School is scrutinised by the Quality Assurance Committee of the University before it is channelled to the Senate.

We have to comply with local ordinances which govern the offering of programmes leading to non-local awards
Cap 493 Non-local Higher and Professional Education (Regulation) Ordinance
Cap 592 Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications Ordinance

Many of our programmes have been closely scrutinised by local academic accreditation agencies
Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications and Joint Quality Review Committee of UGC funded tertiary institutions

Programmes involving professional recognition are closely examined by local/overseas professional bodies
Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants
Chartered Institute of Housing, UK
The Chartered Institute of Building, UK

Some programmes have undergone scrutiny by non-local national academic accreditation agencies in Hong Kong
Australian University Quality Agency
Western Association of Schools and Colleges (USA)
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, UK

In the last few years, our investment in ensuring quality has started to reap practical benefits for our students. This year, it is projected that more than half of our full-time students are eligible to apply for government grants and loans on very favourable terms as we have ten programmes that have undergone local accreditation. Our estimate is that over a thousand students will become eligible for the 2013/14 intake when the double cohort of secondary school leavers is ready for top-up degree programmes. The government is now including our top-up capacity in the formal planning process of the Hong Kong higher education system.

Given that we have adopted such a strict discipline to ensure the quality of our programmes, it is not surprising that many of our students have benefited in terms of their satisfaction with our programmes, their employment and how well they have done in the work place. Our exit surveys of students have shown that students on the whole are satisfied or very satisfied with their learning experience at the School. Many of our graduates from both the full-time and part-time top-up degree programmes are able to find employment soon after graduation. Over the years, there have been tens of thousands of students who have obtained degree awards through the School and many of them are now doing very well in their careers. In fact, we are planning to recognise such achievements in a systematic manner in the future with Outstanding Alumni of the School awards.

It is gratifying to learn that our engagement in lifelong learning is now being formally recognised by students, employers and government.

Charles K H WONG, Hon DEd, MH
Director
School of Continuing and Professional Education (SCOPE)
City University of Hong Kong