School-based approach is a major attempt of education reforms to enhance and improve school performance and to meet the high demand of quality education in the society (Caldwell & Spinks, 2013; Cheng, 2015; Griffin, McGaw & Care, 2012). Curriculum reform with a school-based approach offers schools and teachers with high professional autonomy and technical flexibility to develop school-based curriculum and pedagogies to better fit the needs of students in the context (Harris, 2003). Although the initiatives of Hong Kong school-based curriculum development in the last decade have produced some successful outcomes (Cheung & Wong, 2011; Yuen, Cheung & Wong, 2012), there have been some challenges worth for further investigation (Cheng, 2014; Lee, 2014). Through reviewing the Hong Kong experiences and related international evidence, this paper has identified the key challenges and difficulties to the curriculum reform in a school-based approach in three aspects. In the intellectual aspects, since there was lack of professional input in developing a strong knowledge base for curriculum development, most school-based curriculum initiatives or innovations were too piecemeal, fragmented and thin. In the structural aspects, as many teachers wasted a lot of time to “re-invent a wheel” or “scratch from beginning in developing school-based curriculum, they did not have sufficient time and energy to be effective in teaching and helping students. Culturally, the reliance on the school management to steer the school-based reforms would create potential conflicts between the senior management and teachers if leaders were not well prepared to do it and change the culture. A cooperative platform integrating central bureaucracy intelligence and school-based initiatives is thus suggested to enhance a balanced development in the future (Cheng, 2005). International implications will be discussed.

In response to the challenges from globalization, international competition, technological advance, and transformation towards knowledge economy, there have been numerous higher education reforms in the past two decades particularly in the Asia-Pacific Region. The role of higher education in creation and transfer of new knowledge as well as development of high-quality human resources has become much more crucial than ever to building up human capital for the future of the society and individuals in such competitive regional and global contexts. As appearing to be part of globalization and international trends, paradigm shift is evident and needed in higher education reform and human capital management in the Region. This presentation aims to 1. illustrate the trend of fast growing higher education in the Region and highlight the related challenges to human capital management in the Region in general and Hong Kong in particular; 2. present a typology (with four scenarios) of higher education development to demonstrate the key directions and features in pursuit of paradigm shift in reform, world class education and education hub in the Region; and finally 3. discuss the rationales, functions and dynamics of developing education hub as an important system to groom and manage high value-added human capital in the Region and particularly in Hong Kong as a world city.

With the rapid economic growth and development of the Asian economies in recent decades, there has been a continued rise of students in Asian countries studying outside their home country. The importance of the Asian market has been acknowledged by countries keen on exporting educational services. Hong Kong is aspiring to be an education hub. If this is to be achieved, strategic analysis in relation to how the territory can export its education service to the Asian region is much needed. This study attempts to highlight the major strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of Hong Kong’s higher education in relation to its potential of being a regional education hub in Asia. It follows the study visits which the researchers conducted in such Asian countries as India, Malaysia, and Indonesia, which are important sources of international students in the region. To ensure that the latest trend of development can be accurately reflected, further literature review and documentary studies subsequent to the visits were conducted. The paper concludes by examining the implications for the Hong Kong government and the higher education sector when they seek to capture these increasingly growing Asian markets.
[Copyright © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore.]

This chapter aims to review and analyze the functions, modes, requirements, and related issues of developing a regional education hub in the Asia-Pacific region. Taking Hong Kong as an emerging case, it examines the relationship between education hub development and higher education development as well as the strategic functions of an education hub to the future development of Hong Kong. The development of an education hub was found closely linked to the demands for higher education in the Asia-Pacific region as well as the internal dynamic of higher education and societal developments in Hong Kong. The mode of education hub development in Hong Kong should put more emphasis on world-class soft power building instead of marketization for generating financial incomes. The requirements for successful education hub development include the huge demands for provision and internationalization of higher education in the region, the strengths of the higher education sector, the policies and measures for attracting and supporting international students and education service providers, and the leadership and support of key government bureaus or central agencies. The discussion and analysis in this chapter will contribute to the related literature, policy development, and initiative implementation in areas of education hub and higher education internationalization not only in Hong Kong but also in other parts of the world.
[Copyright © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore.]

Hong Kong has signaled its intention to develop itself as a regional education hub for a decade. However, the policy is being criticized because Hong Kong has neither diversified its student population ethnically and culturally nor expanded its share in the global higher education market. This chapter explores the significance of the education hub concept in the development of higher education in Hong Kong. It begins with a brief examination of the existing approach to the concept of education hub and internationalization of higher education. It then looks into the main initiatives made by the Hong Kong government to implement its education hub strategy. This is followed by a critical examination of the effects of the hub strategy with a focus on the tensions between Hong Kong and mainland China. It also explores the special status of Hong Kong’s higher education sector in China under the “one country, two systems” constitutional framework. The chapter concludes by arguing that a capitalist and instrumentalist interpretation of internationalization of higher education is not a sufficient condition to underpin an effective education hub notion. Instead, it sees cosmopolitanism as a better ideological rationale for the development of internationalization of higher education in the city.
[Copyright © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore.]

The main purpose of the present study was to explore effective strategies and policies for exporting Hong Kong’s higher education to Asian markets. It examined and compared the current strategies and policies that are currently employed by Australia, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. The data for this project was obtained primarily from documents and in-depth interviews. Documents included the latest government reports, policy addresses, and official statistics. The in-depth interviews were conducted in Hong Kong as well as in the four studied cities—Mumbai, New Delhi, Jakarta, and Kuala Lumpur. Interviewees included government officials, academics, higher education institutions’ representatives, consulate generals, and officials from policy bodies. It is clear from the findings of this present study that a set of favorable policies and strategies at the national level was behind the success of these competitors. Such policies are not confined to educational policies but extend to population and employment policies.
[Copyright © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore.]