HKIEd given right to validate its degrees
The Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) has been granted the right to validate its own degrees - a major step towards gaining university status.
The government's decision, announced yesterday, removes the major difference between it and Hong Kong's seven publicly funded universities.
The move had been recommended by the University Grants Committee.
The institute's president, Paul Morris, called the decision a 'historic moment' and a milestone for the institute.
'We are delighted with the outcome, which recognises the successful upgrading of the institute,' he said. 'This is another step in trying to move teacher education firmly into the mainstream of higher education.
'As a tertiary institution with self-accrediting status, we will now be able to respond quickly and flexibly to the needs of the community, and can save resources which would otherwise be spent on external accreditation.'
Until now, its courses have had to be validated by the Council for Academic Accreditation under the Education and Manpower Bureau.
A spokesman for the bureau said: 'The institutional review report has concluded that the HKIEd is strongly led and is ready to move to self-accreditation. It is academically desirable to allow a degree-awarding institution to be self-accrediting, provided it is deemed to be capable of undertaking such responsibility.'
But he said this did not mean the institute was being upgraded to university status.
