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Teaching Academy

Mission

Inaugurated in the 2022-23 academic year under the auspices of the Office of the Vice-President (Teaching and Learning) and in collaboration with the Teaching and Learning Innovation Centre (TALIC) at The University of Hong Kong, the HKU Teaching Academy acts as an independent forum and strategic think tank to nurture and promote teaching excellence and innovation.

By bringing together a critical mass of campus champions of teaching and learning, the Teaching Academy aims to drive excellence and innovation. Members engage in ‘blue sky’ thinking to review global forecasts and trends in higher education and envision possible futures for student learning, curriculum design and professional development at HKU. The Teaching Academy is also data-driven, drawing on analysis of the large corpus of institutional surveys to identify grand challenges and advise on ways forward for T&L at the University.

Paper 1

Paper 2

Activities

The Teaching Academy has three major annual activities:

Think Tank retreats

Standing and core members + Faculty Associate Deans (T&L)
Retreat 1: Blue Sky Thinking. Call for topics one month prior (S1)
Retreat 2: Data Analytics. Institutional data analysis with TALIC (S2)
Managed by Office of VP (T&L) and TALIC

T&L Mentorship programme

Core members take on new assistant professors as mentees
Quota determined by number of core members and number of new assistant professors
Managed by TALIC

T&L Festivals

Advise on programme and events for HKU T&L Festival (October/March)
Managed by TALIC

4th HKU Teaching and Learning Festival 2023

TAB: Membership

The Teaching Academy has standing members aligned to major portfolios and initiatives who serve on a continuing basis. Core and aspiring members are on two-year rotations with the aim of ensuring vitality in ideas generation as well as direct input on policy and institutional development. Emeritus members are former ‘core’ members invited to act as critical friends to the Teaching Academy.

(A) Standing

VP (T&L) (Chair)
AVP (T&L) (Deputy Chair – Lead on S1 Blue Sky Thinking)
Director, TALIC (Deputy Chair – Lead on S2 Data Analytics)
Professoriate staff, TALIC
Coordinator Advance HE, TALIC

(B) Appointed for two-year terms

Core [remit: to drive the think tank and act as mentors for early-career faculty]
- HKU Teaching Excellence Awardees [past two years]
- Advance HE Principal and Senior Fellows [two years from beginning of fellowship]
- HKU Teaching and Learning Fellows [two years from beginning of fellowship]
Aspiring [remit: to support the work of the Teaching Academy as Faculty champions]
- Faculty Teaching Excellence Awardees [two years from beginning of award]
- Advance HE Fellows [two years from beginning of fellowship]
Emeritus [remit: to join at least one half-day retreat & T&L Festival annually; half quota mentorship role]
- Former core members who opt to retain Teaching Academy membership [no time limit]