phd in education hku

Institutional Reputation & Global Presence

The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is the oldest university in Hong Kong. As an English-medium university with a history that stretches back more than 100 years, it has grown with and helped shape the city from which it takes its name.

Today, HKU is recognized internationally as a dynamic and comprehensive university of world-class standing. With its distinguished excellence in research and outstanding performance in teaching, it attracts first-class teaching and research staff and brilliant students from around the world.

Research Excellence

Number of HKU academics, the highest among universities in Hong Kong, named by Clarivate in its list of ‘Highly Cited Researchers’ as the most influential in the world. Their works have been highly cited by fellow academics and are hence making a significant impact in ongoing research in their respective fields HKU has won a proud reputation as a world-class comprehensive research university. Its research is of proven quality and impact, and it has a very successful record in the competitive local market for research funding.

For example, it has the highest cumulative number and value of Research Grants Council’s Areas of Excellence, Theme-based Research Scheme and Collaborative Research Fund projects among government-funded institutions, the higher number of awards in Croucher Senior Research Fellowships and Medical Research Fellowships, Chinese Academy of Engineering Academicians, etc. HKU also has the highest number of refereed publications per academic and research staff member.

Emphasis on Research Postgraduate Students, Student Diversity & Internationalisation  

Times Higher Education World’s Most International Universities 2024

Research postgraduate students accounts for 10% of the total student population, and are making valuable contribution to the University’s research work and environment.

The University values the important role of non-local students, which accounts for over 80%. Our students come from over 60 countries and regions, providing intellectual stimulation and contributing to the social and cultural life of the University.

World-Class Teaching

HKU has been consistently pursuing a vision of high-quality education and it adopts a student-centred approach in research postgraduate education. Its academics are recruited from leading universities across the world, and many are highly regarded in the global academic community.

International Focus

The University has academic links with more than 400 overseas universities and hosts over 10,000 international students. Over 65% of its academic staff come from overseas. Extensive exchange and fellowship arrangements have been established at University / faculty / department levels to promote research collaboration and to provide an international learning environment. Research postgraduate students have opportunities to participate in international conferences and take part in overseas training and international research collaboration.

Wide Range of Fields of Study

HKU offers PhD and MPhil programmes in all ten Faculties, including Architecture, Arts, Business and Economics, Dentistry, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Science and Social Sciences.

Use of English as the Medium of Instruction

A distinctive position as an English-medium university in Asia is one of HKU's great strengths.

Support Facilities

HKU students have access to first-class libraries with over 8.5 million e-resources, including e-books, e-journals and e-database etc. as well as computer, sports and leisure facilities. The University also provides residential accommodation for a proportion of its students.

Career Prospects

Many of HKU graduates are employed in high-level positions in top universities, government, business and industry in Hong Kong and around the world.

Further Information:

• First and Foremost
• Research at HKU

• Programme Information
• Faculty of Education

Postgraduate Diploma in Education

The Postgraduate Diploma in Education [PGDE] programme prepares university graduates to teach in Hong Kong in sectors ranging from kindergartens to secondary schools. It offers both full-time and parttime mode of study. The full-time programme extends over one academic year and provides initial professional teacher training for students without previous teaching experience. The part-time programme extends over two academic years and provides in-service teachers with professional training and a basis for continuing professional development. The PGDE is a teacher training qualification recognised by the Education Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

What Our Students Say

Mode of Attendance

Full Time (normally one year, up to a maximum of two years, with classes possibly on weekday evenings and/or Saturday)

Part Time (normally two years, up to a maximum of four years, with classes on weekday evenings and/or Saturday)

Medium of Instruction

Programme entrance requirements.

A candidate shall satisfy both the University Admissions Requirements and the Programme Specific Requirements as listed below:

1. comply with the General Regulations and the Regulations for Taught Postgraduate Curricula;

2. hold a Bachelor's degree of this University or a qualification of equivalent standard from this University or another comparable institution accepted for this purpose;

3. normally be expected to have completed a substantial portion of their undergraduate studies in the major subject for which they wish to apply.

In addition:

4. for a part-time applicant, normally be a serving teacher in Hong Kong schools with a minimum of one year of relevant teaching experience;

5. a candidate who is seeking admission on the basis of a qualification from a university or comparable institution outside Hong Kong where the language of teaching and/or examination is not English, shall satisfy the University English language requirement as prescribed under General Regulation G2(b) having:

a) a score of 550 or above (paper-based test), or 80 or above (internet-based test) in the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) # ; or b) a minimum overall band of 6 with no subtest lower than 5.5 in the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) # ; or c) grade C or above either in the Overseas General Certificate of Education, the International General Certificate of Secondary Education, or the Cambridge Test of Proficiency in English Language;

6. all candidates shall satisfy the examiners in a qualifying examination, if required.

# For admission, only TOEFL or IELTS scores recorded in the two years before the date of application will be considered.

Programme Admissions Advisor(s)

Ms Tanya Kempston

List of Programmes

Application deadline.

Full Time: 12:00 noon (GMT +8), January 31, 2024

Application Closed

Part Time: 12:00 noon (GMT +8), April 5, 2024

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Description

• Thesis Search
• Theses @HKU
• Relevant Links

Retrospective Conversion of Print Theses

Dept/program, about the collection:.

The Hong Kong University Theses Collection holds theses and dissertations submitted for higher degrees to the University of Hong Kong since 1941. The first recorded thesis was dated 1928, though all theses prior to 1941 were lost during the occupation of WWII. The HKU Scholars Hub includes theses in the arts, humanities, education and the social, medical and natural sciences. Many of them deal entirely with or focus on subjects relating to Hong Kong. The collection is primarily in English, with some in English and Chinese, and others in Chinese only. Almost all existing HKU theses are included in the HKU Scholars Hub. Missing older ones might still be located in HKU departmental libraries. As of 2006, HKUTO began to include some theses done by the HKU School of Professional and Continuing Education (SPACE).

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (ETDs):

The University Libraries began in 1996 to place HKU ETDs online. In 2000, The HKU Senate made new policy requiring new Research Postgraduate (rpg) students entering after 1 Jan 2001 to create an ETD and be placed online in the Libraries servers in open access. Almost all other thesis producing HKU degrees now (2011) require the same. From Dec 2010, only rpg theses are collected both in print and ETD. For other degrees, only ETDs are collected. A retrospective digitization project on older theses was completed in 2010.

Printed Thesis Access:

The original hardcopy of the Theses Collection is housed in the University Archives and does not circulate. All print theses are housed in off campus University Archives storage and must be ordered for you by the archivists. Please contact the University Archives by email at [email protected] to request one or more theses for your research and please give the author, title, year, and call number of the theses you wish to consult. They will contact you as soon as they are available for you. Viewing must be done in the University Archives. You may also reach the Archive by telephone at (852) 2219-4191. Occasionally, an author may restrict access to his or her thesis for a limited period of time and it will not be available right away, or not available on line in the HKU Scholars Hub.

If you cannot download copies of the pages you need from the HKU Scholars Hub and wish to have copies made by the Archivists you may request the Archives to do the copying for a small fee, provided that the author has no restrictions on copying the work. They restrict the copy orders to 1/3 or less of the entire thesis and you are required to cite the thesis properly in your work including: the author, the title, date of publication, courtesy of the University Archives, University of Hong Kong.

Resources to support your thesis writing

Endnote@HKU : A bibliographic software to organize your references and cite while you write

Turnitin@HKU : A text matching software for originality checking

ETD@HKU : Submitting and creating your electronic thesis

Other ETD Initiatives

Finding Australian Theses : Full text to postgraduate theses at Australian universities

DART-Europe E-theses Portal : Full text research theses from 11 European countries

DSpace@MIT : Full text to over 20,000 MIT Theses

Digital Dissertation Consortium : Full text to over 106,616 dissertations from the ProQuest subscribed by HKUL (HKU only)

DissOnline : Full text to doctoral dissertations and theses from German universities

DiVA : the Academic Archive Online: Full text to doctoral and masters dissertations and other academic reports from universities in Scandinavia (mainly Sweden and Norway)

E-thesis Electronic Publication at the University of Helsinki : Doctoral dissertations and other publications from the University of Helsinki.

Electronic theses and dissertations Taiwan : Abstracts to doctoral dissertations at the universities in Taiwan from 1994 onwards.

Ethos : Electronic Theses Online Service: British Library's online thesis service

HKLIS -- Dissertations and Theses Collection (DTC) : Doctoral and masters dissertations and theses at the university libraries in Hong Kong. Full text access is available from University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Lingnan University.

Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations : Electronic theses and dissertations for over 90 universities.

OpenThesis : OpenThesis is a free repository of theses, dissertations, and other academic documents.

Pennsylvania State University's electronic Theses and Dissertations Archives : Abstract to Penn State electronic theses and dissertations.

Proquest Digital Dissertations (PQDD) : Index and abstract to international dissertations from 1861 for more than 1000 universities. Some carry full text. (HKU Only)

Theses Canada Portal : This site is maintained by the National Library of Canada offering access to theses submitted to Canadian universities. .

Please note that most HKU postgraduate programs require students to now produce electronic theses. Please see Theses at HKU for a description of this procedure, and the thesis submission form for the regulations concerning them.

However the great majority of postgraduate students graduated without these new requirements. The paragraphs below describe the digitization of these theses.

Most graduate programs at HKU began to require electronic theses from their students from 2001*. Usage statistics in 2004 showed that electronic theses were receiving 400 times more usage than the printed theses. In order to further unlock this hidden treasure, we searched out postal and email addresses of our post-graduate alumni, who had written theses before this new electronic requirement, and wrote to them in 2004/05 asking for their permission to digitize their printed theses. We received 1,000s of positive replies, and a handful of negative ones. Some even sent us the original source files, so that we could convert and make text-embedded PDF files. We have now (June 2011) finished retrospective digitization of all HKU theses deposited in the HKU Libraries.

Most thesis authors are very happy to find their thesis online now. Whereas printed theses were rarely found and read, the online theses are indexed in many worldwide search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, and can be found and read by anyone around the world. Potential employers and scholarly collaborators can easily find, read and cite them.

However, some thesis authors, for their own reasons do not wish to allow online access. If this is the case for you, could you please send us a copy of your HKU Library card, or a copy of some other form of identification, and we will remove access to the online thesis. Could you please send this to [email protected] , or to,

• Cataloguing Department

HKU Libraries

• Pokfulam Road

The letter that went out to thesis authors asking their consent for digitization, wrote that, "If we don't hear anything from you we will assume that you approve. However, should you decide at a future time that you do not want your thesis included, simply notify us in writing and we will immediately remove it from the database."

* Please note that if you entered a HKU postgraduate program requiring an e-thesis, you should follow instructions in the Submission Form for your degree if you wish it to be restricted.

We celebrate the distinguished post-graduates of HKU and their work.

Discovery - Top 10

• 10053 doctor of philosophy
• 5929 master of philosophy
• 1663 master of education
• 1618 master of arts
• 1572 master of social sciences
• 1460 master of medical sciences
• 874 master of housing management
• 769 master of business administration
• 764 master of public health
• 706 master of public administration
• 2740 education
• 1011 chemistry
• 1005 architecture
• 957 electrical and electronic enginee...
• 864 housing management
• 808 chinese
• 807 business administration
• 767 medicine
• 755 public health
• 724 public administration

Degree Level

• 21378 master
• 10444 doctoral
• 33 postgraduate diploma
• 3 the best phd thesis in the facult...
• 2 hku 3 minute thesis award, 2rd ru...
• 2 li ka shing prize, the best phd t...
• 2 the best phd thesis in the facult...

Date issued

• 3453 2020 - 2024
• 4847 2015 - 2019
• 5301 2010 - 2014
• 4761 2005 - 2009
• 4906 2000 - 2004
• 3725 1995 - 1999
• 1901 1990 - 1994
• 1233 1985 - 1989
• 788 1980 - 1984
• 377 1975 - 1979
• 30457 english
• 1334 chinese

HKU Organizations

• 243 li ka shing faculty of medicine
• 85 faculty of social sciences
• 83 faculty of engineering
• 56 faculty of dentistry
• 52 faculty of science
• 52 school of public health
• 51 faculty of education
• 49 faculty of arts
• 30 department of surgery
• 29 department of electrical and elec...

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Using Better LLMs to Teach Lesser LLMs: Knowledge Distillation via Dynamic in-context Prompting for LLM based Customer Service

Prof. Tong Wang Assistant Professor of Marketing Yale School of Management Yale University

The rapid development of large language models (LLMs) presents both opportunities and challenges in deploying them in goal-oriented dialogues for complex human interactions, such as customer support and persuasion. Advanced LLMs like GPT-4 excel in these domains but are too large and cost-prohibitive, while smaller and more economical models like LLaMa 2 offer limited performance. This paper proposes a novel approach to enhance the capabilities of smaller LLMs by leveraging the strategic prowess of their more advanced counterparts. Unlike traditional methods that focus on direct response learning, we introduce a strategy-centric imitation learning framework. Here, the advanced LLM acts as a teacher, imparting strategic thinking to the prompts of a lesser LLM and refining it iteratively until the student mimics the teacher effectively. We design an iterative process which alternates between scenario generation and strategy learning and returns a customized library of various scenarios and the optimized strategies. Crucially, our approach requires only black-box access to the models, facilitating easier integration across different platforms without the need for direct parameter manipulation. This strategy not only improves the functional capacity of smaller LLMs but also contributes to broader AI safety and interpretability by enabling the scrutiny of learned strategies by domain experts. The results indicate significant potential for using strategic knowledge transfer in real-world applications, enhancing the utility of LLM deployments in cost-sensitive environments.

Royal, Wippman Named Presidents-in-Residence

• Posted May 9, 2024
• By Ryan Nagelhout
• College Access and Success
• Higher Education Leadership
• Teachers and Teaching

The Harvard Graduate School of Education has announced the latest members of its Judith Block McLaughlin Presidents-in-Residence (PIR) Program . Christina Royal, president of Holyoke Community College, and David Wippman, president of Hamilton College, will join HGSE for the 2024-25 academic year.

As presidents-in-residence, Wippman and Royal will teach and mentor students in HGSE’s higher education degree offerings, contributing to courses and providing valuable insight based on their long careers as university presidents. Senior Lecturer Francesca Purcell , faculty director of the Presidents-in-Residence Program, shared that the latest appointments offer unique insights from across the higher educational leadership landscape.

“Their varying perspectives on higher education leadership in the 21st century will enrich and deepen the learning experiences for our students in the residential higher education concentration and in the online higher education pathway,” Purcell said. “Christina has extensive experience leading community colleges and David brings insights leading a small liberal arts college with both boasting exceptional records advancing equity, opportunity, and excellence across the national higher education landscape. Importantly, they are thoughtful practitioners who will engage with and inspire HGSE students.”

Dozens of college and university presidents have taken part in the PIR Program since it was created in 2001. Royal is the first community college president, and she said she is “honored” by the distinction.

“It is important for Harvard graduate students who are studying higher education to understand that community colleges are essential to the ecosystem of public post-secondary education and the vital role they play as an economic engine for society,” Royal said. “I’ve dedicated my career to higher education, with a particular focus on historically marginalized and racially minoritized students.”

Royal, who announced her departure as Holyoke’s president in the spring of 2023, made history as the school’s first woman of color president when she was appointed in 2017.

Her tenure saw the school launch programs promoting diversity and equity in higher education, working with the Holyoke Housing Authority and Westfield State University to support low-cost housing for students. Royal also advocated for programs to develop child care options for students with children and a student emergency fund for sudden expenses. Upon her retirement, an annual equity award at Holyoke was started and named in her honor.

“I’m looking forward to engaging in meaningful discussions with Harvard learners to deepen their understanding of the complexities of our American system of higher education,” said Royal. “Through these discussions, my hope is that they continue to unlearn the systems and structures that no longer work for us and re-learn ways to strengthen the ones that do.”

Royal earned her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Marist College in 1994 and received an M.A. in educational psychology in 2003. Royal received her Ph.D. in Instructional Design for Online Learning from Capella University in 2007. Her teaching career has included 15 years at Marist, another seven at Cuyahoga Community College and a stint as provost and chief academic officer at Inver Hills Community College.

Wippman, who has served as Hamilton’s president since 2016, announced his retirement at the end of the 2023-24 academic year. A recognized authority in international law, Wippman has taught about ethnic conflict, public international law, international criminal law, and international human rights.

His tenure at Hamilton has included the development of the College’s strategic plan, including a record-breaking Because Hamilton campaign to raise $400 million for College priorities, including $120 million for student scholarship aid. Wippman’s office prioritized diversity, equity and inclusion, and developed new programs to support student advising, digital fluency, and cross-boundary political thought and complex social issues.

Wippman was previously named dean of the University of Minnesota Law School in 2008. He also served as a professor and associate dean at Cornell Law School as well as vice provost for international relations at Cornell University.

“Serving as a President-in-Residence is a wonderful opportunity to work with and learn from future higher education leaders at a time when higher education leadership has become more challenging than ever,” Wippman said. “It's an honor to join a program with such distinguished faculty and talented students.”

A former U.S. Court of Appeals law clerk, Wippman served as a director in the National Security Council’s Office of Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs, working on war crimes issues, the International Criminal Court, economic sanctions, and U.N. political issues. Wippman earned his bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1976, a master’s degree from Yale in 1978, and his law degree from Yale Law School in 1982.

The Presidents-in-Residence program was fully endowed in 2023 and renamed in honor of former Senior Lecturer Judith Block McLaughlin, who retired at the end of the 2022-23 academic year. McLaughlin first started the Presidents-in-Residence program in 2001, and two decades later it continues to serve as an opportunity for Ed School students to gain new perspectives and learn lessons from groundbreaking educational leaders sharing their own experiences and insights.

“Fundamentally, students need to understand themselves as leaders, what drives their decision-making processes, and who they are as people, in order to effectively lead others,” Royal said. “We spend a lot of time educating students into a contemporary image of a leader, although the best preparation for leadership is learning to be authentically themselves and share their unique gifts, talents, and strengths with others.”

The latest research, perspectives, and highlights from the Harvard Graduate School of Education

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