Associate (community college) degrees have expanded rapidly in the past decade in Hong Kong, but their value has been questioned due to the limited number of government-funded articulation opportunities available. This paper argues that associate degrees in Hong Kong are not valued solely for articulation purposes, but also for nurturing students' development for future pursuits. This study examined associate degree students' development longitudinally over the two-year curriculum, and piloted the use of diagnostic instruments for prospective quality assurance. Three hundred associate degree students from Engineering, Marketing and Sociology programmes (N = 113, 128 and 59, respectively) at a community college in Hong Kong completed the student engagement questionnaire at two time points (commencement and graduation). Two-way repeated measure multivariate analysis of variance results suggest a significant interaction effect between Time and Discipline and a main effect of Time on seven dimensions of generic capabilities. It was found that students from Engineering programmes yielded more and larger positive changes in generic capabilities than students of other programmes. Implications of the findings regarding the value and the learning environment of associate degrees are discussed.
[Copyright of International Journal of Lifelong Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02601370.2014.909539]

This paper focuses on the differential predictability of Maslach's three burnout components on the intention to quit the teaching profession among Chinese teachers in Hong Kong. A sample of 379 teachers participated in the current study, which provided data on the associations among social support, burnout, and intention to quit. Results from structural equation modeling confirmed that the three components of burnout acted differently on intention to quit, with emotional exhaustion as the dominant factor, while the other two components exerted no effect. The findings concurred with those from US research. Support from a supervisor has a direct influence on the teacher's intention to quit and an indirect effect through emotional exhaustion. In contrast to the findings in the West, the effect of support from colleagues was shown to be minimal in this study.
[Copyright of Anxiety Stress Coping is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10615800600565476]