Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 1993

training programmes, both in and outside China, for trainees from the Chinese cities of Changzhou, Shashi and Luoyang. It is hoped that such exposure can help strenghten the nine-year free education and vocational education systems in these cities and upgrade the quality of teaching and educational administration. The Faculty of Education will conduct the project in collaboration with the California State University at Northridge, London University's Institute of Education, the Temasek Polytechnic of Singapore, the East China Normal University and Central China Normal University. Over 120 experts from these institutions are involved. Degree Programme in Primary Education to Be Introduced The Faculty of Education will offer a full-time pre- service bachelor of education programme in primary education from 1994-95. The new programme is specially designed for holders of a teacher's certificate from a recognized college of education to top up their training and education to degree level. The length of study is two years. This is part of the University's effort to improve teacher education in the territory and the programme w i ll last until the new Institute of Education is ready to run degree programmes on its own. New Research Institute/Centres Established The Ho ng Ko ng I n s t i t u te of Educa t i onal Research of The Chinese University of Hong Kong was established in September 1993 to promote educational research activities in the University. The objectives of the institute are to conduct strategic research with strong policy implications for educational developments in China and Hong Kong, to effectively deploy resources for educational research, to provide consultancy services and to conduct development programmes for local schools, professional organizations, government bodies and private agencies. The institute plans to establish a data bank to store useful data from important international and local research projects, publish research findings and ideas in the form of monographs, occasional papers and journals, host international conferences, seminars, workshops, and public lectures for the academic community and the educational profession, and develop relevant instructional and training materials. Six potential research programmes have initially been identified: (1) educational development in contemporary China, (2) policy of language education in Hong Kong, (3) effectiveness of schooling in Hong Kong and South China, (4) education for the gifted, (5) education administration and reform, and (6) curriculum development in Chinese societies. The Research Centre for Contemporary Chinese Culture was established in 1993 under the Institute of Chinese Studies to conduct and coordinate research in the following areas: (1) The historical development, in particular the structural transformation, of modern China. (2) The modernization of Chinese culture, including the interaction between traditional culture and modernization, Chinese nationalism, the Chinese Enlightenment; and the nature of modernity. (3) Comparative studies of modernization in China and other nations under the impact of the West. Mr. Gao Xing Jian, a well-known Beijing playwright residing in Paris, was the first visitor to the centre. During his visit in October, he offered a series of seminars on modem drama, and together with Dr. Liu Xiaofeng, a research fellow of the centre, he delivered the first Sin Wai Kin Lecture on Contemporary Chinese Culture. In spring 1994, Prof. Jin Guantao, another research fellow of the centre, and Prof. Leo Lee from Harvard will, respectively, deliver the second and third Sin Wai Kin Lectures. News in Brief 43