The purpose of this study was to determine the nature of marketing experiences that selected transnational university program providers had in Asia during 2002--2003. The study also determined what the selected transnational educational leaders saw as the important aspects of a framework for institutions of higher education to use for market entry into selected Asian countries.

In recent years, many governments of East Asian countries, such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong have initiated educational reforms to transform schools for sustainable outcomes. Promoting teacher leadership has been identified as part of the educational reform agenda in global quality discourses. This paper aims to offer insights into the practice of teacher leadership in a Chinese early childhood education context. The central tenet of teacher leadership is change agentry. Like its counterparts in the Asia Pacific Region, early childhood education in Hong Kong has historically been characterized by minimum training and a modified form of apprenticeship. Therefore, preschool teaching is likely to be identified as non-professional occupation. Preschool teachers seldom play a key role in supporting, stimulating, or catalyzing change. After the change of sovereignty from British to China in 1997, the local government has increased investment in early childhood education. Over the past 20 years, upgrading teacher professional qualifications has been used as amain strategy to enhance the quality of ECE. This raise an important question: Can preschool teachers move beyond the role of apprentice and become change agents for school development? Adopting a case study approach, the study reported in this paper is to examine the changing role of teachers in school development. The construct of change agency was examined from the perspectives of various school stakeholders (i.e. preschool principals, key stage coordinators, and classroom teachers). The findings indicated that the key stage coordinators who are teachers holding functional posts acted as teacher leaders to play the role of agents in leading changes beyond classroom in various areas including curriculum and pedagogy, teacher professional development, home-school collaboration, and community-school involvement. Meanwhile, the classroom teachers mainly acted as followers in the change process. The practice

香港作為一個亞洲國際都會，香港的高等教育一向重視培育國際化人才。為了剖析香港高等教育國際化現況，這篇文章將回顧教資會的政策，並就各院校的國際化措施、境外生來港升讀、高等教育學生交流等方面作出分析和討論。

This paper will examine the interplay of equity and excellence in Singapore’s secondary schools. It uses Fraser’s (2008) three forms of justice: redistributive, recognitive and representational. It explores Singapore’s ‘bridges and ladders’ model of differentiated schooling. Case studies of a madrasah, a specialised school, and an elite school demonstrate the tensions between equity and excellence in the system. We argue that the ‘bridges and ladders’ model, through its differentiated schooling experiences, paradoxically increases equity and excellence while simultaneously exacerbating inequity. Finally, we reflect on the implications of this research on the pursuit of equity in Hong Kong’s education system.

Purpose: This paper aims to provide data on the self-perceived state of sustainability consciousness of first-year Hong Kong students. Design/methodology/approach: Within a mixed-method research design framework, the authors conducted 787 questionnaires and collected 989 reflective narratives of first-year students of a university in Hong Kong, who were enrolled in the General Education course. Findings: Attributed to students’ immersion in compulsory sustainability education modules within liberal studies programs in secondary through higher education (HE), the quantitative results revealed an increase in the self-perceived knowledge and behavioral aspects of sustainability consciousness of Hong Kong students and their low engagement in sustainability-related civic, campus or action groups. However, qualitative results revealed three aspects of the students’ sustainability consciousness: intentionality to make a difference; engagement with complex questions about identity, society and nature; and eschatological perspectives, which included imaginative, future-oriented and action-oriented approaches to critical reflection, supported by the rhetoric of hope, promises and commitment for better future. Originality/value: The study provides insights into the challenge of implementation of the United Nations-based sustainable development model in the Hong Kong educational system through the formal liberal studies curriculum. It advances the field by constructing a momentum for conceptual changes in sustainability education research toward design of the non-linear and culturally sensitive frameworks for sustainability implementation in HE. This allows to utilize universities’ unique capacities for fostering students’ sustainability consciousness in a continuous and systemic way.
[Copyright © 2017 Tamara Savelyeva and William Douglas.]

The global drive for world-class universities is twinned with a radical movement to create research assessment indicators, and universities have never been pressured as much as today by global rankings. This paper aims to focus on how research assessment exercises have reconfigured the institutional missions of the university in terms of knowledge production, teaching, and service address, by comparing three top research-intensive universities in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Japan. It critically investigates how far and in what ways academics in the three systems have been pressured to respond to these exercises. The empirical findings show that all the three cases have been affected severely and that Hong Kong universities are the most internationalized and Mainland universities are the most productive in research outputs, as also evidenced in recent QS rankings. The paper argues that the global ranking regime has created a Double Bind for East Asian universities, and has brutally dominated their institutional reconfigurations. To turn the tide, the manipulated emphasis, flawed methodology, and unethical desirability of global university rankings and research assessment exercises should be avoided to help universities healthily and meaningfully focus on real missions to which they should commit themselves. Meanwhile, critical reflections and policy actions are particularly urgent on the indigenousness of knowledge exploration and production by higher education systems in East Asia and other post-colonial contexts. Furthermore, the paper anticipates that the importance of teaching and service will be revitalized in the new stage of East Asian universities, e.g., the Chinese University 3.0.

A pilot study explored the effectiveness of art therapy in improving the self-motivation and emotional and behavioral adjustment of children with special educational needs in Hong Kong. Six children aged between 6 and 10 participated in an art therapy group for 14 weekly sessions. Results from a range of standardized tests administered before and after the session block indicated that the art therapy group had little impact on the children's sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in their learning. However, in-session observations showed that the art therapy facilitated the fulfilment of these three areas, and parental reports via interview indicated that art therapy had improved the emotional and behavioral adjustment of their children. Issues in facilitating art therapy groups for children with special education needs are discussed.

Introduction: Despite the increasingly widespread popularity of electronic devices, there are limited comprehensive studies on the effects of usage and exposure to multiple electronic devices over extended periods of time. Therefore, this study explored the cumulative musculoskeletal implications of exposure to various electronic devices among university students. Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was administered in the university in Hong Kong and students provided information about the frequency and duration of electronic devices use, including computers, mobile phones and game consoles, and reported on any musculoskeletal pain or discomfort that may relate to electronic devices usage in the immediate 12 months prior to the survey date. Results: A total of 503 university students (59% males and 41% females) aged 18-25 years completed the questionnaire. The results showed that 251 (49.9%) respondents reported upper limb musculoskeletal symptoms, particularly in the neck and shoulder regions. Among these, 155 (61.8%) indicated that their discomfort was related to electronic device usage. Statistically significant differences in exposure to electronic devices and musculoskeletal outcomes between genders were found (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The use of electronic devices and habitual postures were associated with musculoskeletal problems among university students in Hong Kong. This phenomenon highlights the urgent need for ergonomics education and recommendations to increase students' awareness of musculoskeletal wellbeing.