She is to lead a revolution in teacher training. The inspiring modern campus stretched out below the Pat Sin Leng range in the New Territories is symbolic of the change. It replaces dreary buildings where student teachers were trained for low-status jobs of drilling primary and kindergarten children in the three Rs.

Tung Chee-hwa's education policy has provided the framework for change, although plans for the campus were under way before the handover. 'There was recognition that the Certificate of Education was inadequate but the Government was not prepared to put in resources. Even before I came it was not clear we'd have an all-graduate profession so soon,' said Professor Hayhoe, who became director in September. 'Mr Tung's policy statement opened the door to rapid movement.' From 2003, all new teachers must have a degree.

Professor Hayhoe wants to create a new culture of teaching and learning. She wants children to love learning, to be equipped with a lifelong desire for knowledge. It sounds obvious, but it will require a revolution in teachers' understanding of education and a massive upgrading in their skills.

Professor Hayhoe never expected to take up such a post, despite previous experience of working in Hong Kong. 'At first I thought it was not possible. I was too settled in Canada. I had recently married and my husband had never lived in the region so it was a big thing for him. But he encouraged me.' Her husband, Walter Linde, is a 69-year-old retired German engineer. 'I feel very deeply touched that the Hong Kong people would trust me, a non-Chinese, to do such a sensitive task.' The appointment re-establishes her close links with Chinese education that began, at 21, with her first teaching job at Hong Kong's Heep Yunn School in 1967. She had come to visit her cousin and stayed at the school for 11 years, completing her Certificate of Education at the University of Hong Kong.

Having already mastered Greek, Latin and French, the young teacher decided to learn Cantonese and then Putonghua.

'The characters captured my interest. I was fascinated by Chinese culture. That had been instilled in me in my earlier education. It was not merely for functional, practical purposes or to communicate. It was as a door into a culture,' she said.

'That is what I'd like to see in our children, a love of learning, finding a language intrinsically fascinating.

'In Hong Kong English has been seen in a very functional way, as the language of government, that has to be learned to get a good job. How many young people think: 'Wow, I can read Shakespeare, I can understand many of the rich things in English and American culture?' ' She came closer to Chinese culture by living with a Chinese family for several years. 'I feel my life and thinking are deeply influenced by Chinese culture and thought. I always thought I could provide a bridge to the West . . . to help people understand Chinese culture and be open to it.' In 1980 she moved on to Shanghai, to teach at Fudan University for two years. Then, after finishing her doctorate in comparative education at London University, she became a professor at the University of Toronto. 'But I kept going back to China every year, usually for one or two months, to do research,' she said.

During this time she built up contacts at China's universities, arranging exchanges with Canada and assisting students. She has travelled to every province except Tibet, in each province visiting about 20 academic institutions.

'China is a wonderfully rich country and civilisation, a very diverse place. I've never been a socialist or communist. That's never been a reason why I've been interested in it.' Her expertise was sought by the World Bank, for which she worked as a consultant, before being approached by her own government to become cultural attache in the Canadian Embassy in Beijing. That was in 1989, when relations between Canada and China were at their worst because Canada was taking more mainland students and giving them citizenship than any other Western country.

'It really was a test of diplomacy,' she said. 'We'd have the State Education Commission calling and saying 'you are plundering our talent'. I'd say 'I know, but you have to understand I as a member of the civil service can't do anything about it. It is a political decision'. It was like a lesson in democracy for the mainland, to understand why Canada took a rather extreme position.' But she was determined to keep the political issues separate from education, cultural and academic relations. The exchange programmes she ran between universities in China and Canada enabled her to stay on good terms with the State Education Commission. She had the freedom to travel throughout China, working with TV stations, universities and cultural organisations.

Returning to her academic career in Toronto, she maintained links which have enabled her to become advisory professor to seven universities. She has also written 10 books based on her research and countless papers.

She even learned Japanese so she could compare the country's education system to China's. 'I watch Japanese soap operas every Sunday. I can't understand more than a third but it keeps me up with the words I have learned. I didn't know what all these threads would lead to. But when I look at my background I feel, yes, it is kind of made to order for this job.' Professor Hayhoe has been developing a new vision for HKIEd. Under her tenure, HKIEd, which has 3,500 full-time and 5,000 part-time students, will be transformed to a university-level institution. 'In a short time we're going from an institution entirely doing sub-degree programmes to an institute mainly doing bachelor's and postgraduate degrees. That has tremendous implications for upgrading our staff and upgrading our whole culture,' she said.

HKIEd's first responsibility is still to train teachers for primary schools and kindergarten. 'We really want to change the whole image of education,' she said. 'Primary schools have been somewhat looked down upon. But the kinds of knowledge required to be a good teacher at primary level are highly demanding. The primary teacher has to have deep knowledge of child psychology, of how children learn, of how to teach and support children to become life-long learners. 'For people to be good professional teachers they need a degree. They need to be respected just as fully as other professionals in society.' Research will also have a new importance. Within five years about half its 400 lecturers will have doctorates, compared with around 70 now.

Professor Hayhoe also wants to raise the status of kindergarten teaching. Next year the institute will introduce a Bachelor of Education degree course in early childhood studies. 'We feel that early childhood education is not well understood, not given the attention it deserves in Hong Kong. Many people don't realise that the most exciting area of research in education elsewhere is in the early years. Here it is regarded as something that simpletons can do.' For the secondary level she plans to build up a niche in training teachers for subjects that are less academic but vital to a rounded education, such as the arts, music and physical education. 'Those are areas that haven't been given much importance, resources or recognition,' she said.

Civic and moral education also feature in the new vision. Professor Hayhoe hopes students will be as interested in their Chinese cultural heritage as she is. 'We have a whole new identity to be formed in our young people. What does it mean that Hong Kong people rule Hong Kong? We need to educate our children to feel a sense of responsibility to Hong Kong as a region of China that has a very special autonomy for historical reasons, then as citizens of China, and global citizens.'