Emeritus Professor, The University of Hong Kong
Professor Cheng Kai Ming is Professor Emeritus at the University of Hong Kong, Honorary Director of Education Policy Unit, Faculty of Education, the University of Hong Kong (HKU). He was Dean of Education, Vice-President and Senior Advisor to the President of the University.
He taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education as Visiting Professor from 1996 to 2006. Trained as a mathematician, he was a school teacher and a principal before he pursued doctoral study at the London Institute of Education. He has been consultant with most of the major international organisations. He has been involved in institutional evaluation, accreditation, policy discussion and training in various jurisdictions, recently in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Vietnam and Malaysia. He lectures at the National Academy of Education Administration, China, and SKOLKOVO, Russia. He created the Summer Institute on higher education at HKU, a learning programme for senior leaders in higher education from various countries.
His current attention is on the fundamental changes in society and their challenges to education, and he focuses on learning as the core business of education. He is on the Global Advisory Boards of various international organisations. He is member of China Education 30 Forum, which is a think tank cum advocate in China. Locally he was member of the Education Commission and was instrumental in the comprehensive reform which started 1999. Over the years, he chaired various policy committees relevant to education in Hong Kong. He is among the initiators of ‘Education 2.1’, an advocacy for education development in Hong Kong. He has delivered hundreds of keynotes around the world. He writes columns in Hong Kong Economic Journal Daily and Shanghai Education.
Change in society has caused a change in the education discourse, from scores and credentials to learning in the first place, and personal development beyond knowledge and skills has come forth as of prime importance. What does that mean to our students? In that context, what are the implications for teachers, schools, parents and even the whole society?