Donation Stories
Educational Dreams
The Tin Ka Ping (TKP) Foundation has been making major donations to the Faculty for more than 30 years – indeed, the late Dr Tin Ka Ping's name is synonymous with philanthropy in education. He was a Founding Honorary Patron of the HKU Foundation; in 2008, the TKP Education Fund was established to enhance the capacity of the Faculty to provide the most advanced knowledge and philosophies of education for the benefit of students in Greater China.
By 1991, 10 years after its launch, TKP Foundation donations had already supported hundreds of new teaching facilities in schools and universities. Through the introduction of Professor Cheng Kai-Ming, now Emeritus Professor, Academic Unit of Social Contexts and Policies of Education, and Professor Paul Morris, then Faculty Dean, the Foundation and the Faculty launched a visiting fellowship in Chinese Education together. What was a HK$50,000 fellowship in 1991 has now developed into an HK$11- million education fund in support of the Faculty.
Since the beginning of the TKP Visiting Fellowship Scheme, 257 scholars have come to HKU. Mr Tin Hing Sin, Chairman of the TKP Foundation said, “it has grown from two to three scholar exchanges on a yearly basis in the early 1990s to 14 fellows per year on average from 1998-2007. With the establishment of the TKP Education Fund, the fellowship scheme then became one of the three major supporting areas, along with TKP Postgraduate Fellowship, the TKP Grant for Experiential learning, as well as TKP’s Distinguished Lectures and school education seminars. Also, we have extended the scheme to junior fellows who are prospective PhD candidates, and young scholars from other developing countries.
“These funds not only contribute hugely to knowledge sharing and transfer, they help create research collaboration, encourage professional development and nurture partnerships too.”
In 2013, the TKP Foundation added yet another string to its philanthropic bow, with a donation to what was then intended to be an ad-hoc one-off principal’s training programme for educators from Gansu, proposed initially by Northwest Normal University scholars and the Gansu education commission inspired by their earlier fruitful exchange at the Faculty. It would soon become much more.
“A successful example is the project for school improvement and principal professional capacity development in rural schools in Gansu Province, including principals and administrators,” said Mr Tin, “whereby the Foundation and the Faculty’s Centre for Educational Leadership (CEL) identified a new four-party collaboration, the “GUNS” model (Government, University, NGO, School), aimed at lifting the education standards of rural schools.
“We were convinced by Dr Ng Ho Ming, from the CEL’s Management Committee, to take on the challenge in three-stage training: from principals to directors to selected school management teams. This meant the school improvement plans could take place with internalised sustainability and top-down support from the local government. To date, this on-going training project is still the largest in Hong Kong for mainland educators. I must also pay tribute to the many professional volunteers, including senior teachers and retired principals in Hong Kong.”
In recognition of all the Foundation has done for the Faculty over the years, the Faculty library was renamed the Tin Ka Ping Foundation Education Library in 2017. In his speech at the opening ceremony, Mr Tin mentioned the support HKU has given in making the Foundation’s educational dreams come true.
Mr Tin Hing Sin, Chairman of the Tin Ka Ping Foundation, visited a primary schools at Lianshan Zhuang & Yao Autonomous County, Guangdong
“We are committed to contributing to our country by improving the quality of education through promoting all-round education, a whole-person development, traditional Chinese values with a focus on moral education,” he expressed. “Working with HKU to carry out our missions has been a tremendous success. Given the impact our partnership has made on teachers and schools – and therefore on the kids and their parents – we are thankful for the HKU family’s playing an important part in fulfilling the mission of our Foundation.”
Finally, he summed up what he hopes the Foundation’s support for the Faculty means to students and academics, “broadening global perspective and understanding of China by knowledge transfer, cross-border partnerships, and experiential learning, where the mission and vision of the Faculty takes education to the next level for the future generations.”
Encouraging prospective teachers
Another long-term benefactor of the Faculty is the Hong Kong Equilibrium Cultural Education Foundation (EQ Foundation) which has given significant support for two decades, particularly in the form of scholarships.
The Equilibrium Cultural Education Prize is awarded to the final year student in the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education in Language Education (English) [BA&BEd LangEd)-Eng] programme who has achieved the best overall results in the curriculum. Mr Robert Chan founded the Foundation in the late 1990s in order to support worthwhile causes in society. In the past 20 years, the Foundation, of which he is now Chair of the Board of Governors, has been offering scholarships to secondary students from remote villages in mainland China and university students in Beijing.
“The Prize at the Faculty of Education of HKU started in early 2000,” said Mr Chan. “I believed English language teachers were very important to our schools, both primary and secondary. A good foundation in English language is crucial to our students. I hoped the Prize would provide some encouragement to our prospective teachers at the Faculty. In fact, four of the eight papers in my BA degree course at HKU were related to English.”
Mr Robert Chan (third from left) is a staunch supporter of the Faculty, providing scholarships and advocating the importance of language learning and teacher education.
One of Mr Chan’s earliest endeavours was spearheading the promotion of learning classical Chinese Literature at primary schools as an after school programme from 1997 to 2007. “Sponsored by the EQ Foundation, I had the full support of Professor Tse Shek Kam, then Associate Dean of the Faculty, as our programme advisor. He rendered much valuable direction and advice to the programme.”
Mr Chan has also been a staunch supporter of experiential learning at the Faculty: “I believe in exposure and getting field experience for all kinds of professions, education is no exception,” he said, summing up the EQ Foundation’s commitment to backing teacher education in Hong Kong.
Elevated perspective
Mr Tse Sik Yan, alumnus of HKU and Hughes Hall of Cambridge University, is another long-standing benefactor to the Faculty. In June 2013, Mr Tse made a generous donation to set up an endowment in support of scholarships for HKU students to pursue master’s degrees in Education or Science at Hughes Hall, Cambridge, with the aim of fostering cultural and intellectual exchanges between students from HKU and Cambridge.
In a thank you speech he made on being conferred an Honorary Fellowship by HKU in 2015, Mr Tse mentioned the pride he felt and how it had grown and strengthened “as I literally witnessed the growth and evolution of the Faculty: from the Department of Education into the School of Education, and subsequently into the Faculty of Education in 1984.
“Coming back to our students today, I think this pride and gratitude cannot take shape without a close bond developing between the student and his alma mater at the same time.” Describing how he was inspired by his learned professors and dedicated teachers from the start, Mr Tse said: “Through our daily interactions with our teachers, we as students gradually learn from their words and deeds.”
Mr Tse often refers to the Tse Family Scholarships as an excellent investment in the human mind. Asked to explain why it is so important today to keep making that investment, he expressed, “offering scholarships to deserving students who are in financial hardship can not only broaden their horizons, but also greatly elevate their entire perspectives on life when they are allowed to study in a new and equally remarkable culture.
“To me, investment comes in various forms, but the investment that can produce the greatest and longest impact by far is education. One cannot estimate how much a scholarship can impact its recipient. By providing Tse Family Scholarships to budding and aspiring teachers, we are creating a perpetual ripple effect in young people’s lives.”
Mr Tse Sik Yan, alumnus of HKU, was conferred the Honorary University Fellowship in 2015.
The Faculty would like to thank all those generous donors who have made donations over the years and to encourage more people to give. No matter how large or small your donation – we are both grateful and thankful for your support. We would also like to thank those of you who answered our appeal for donations to the latest round of the Government-matching Grant Scheme, which enables donors to maximise their gift by making every dollar count twice.
Your contributions make a huge difference in helping the Faculty achieve its goals and in creating as many learning opportunities for our students as possible. To the students who benefit from those donations, we encourage you to utilise these scholarships and explore fully the opportunities they provide.