HONG KONG: Hong Kong's Baptist University has come in for criticism for what has been described as its lack of a well-rounded, institution-wide policy to assess students' learning. Leveling the charge is the Quality Assurance Council, the city's watchdog over the quality of tertiary education.

The council, a non-statutory body under the University Grants Committee, said following an audit, "(The Hong Kong Baptist University) acknowledges the lack of a comprehensive institution-wide assessment policy to cover aspects such as the frequency of assessment and marking practices, and plans to formulate such a policy."

Ng Ching-fai, the university's president and vice-chancellor, said, "It is true that different faculties and schools have their own student assessment systems. Double-marking may be feasible for exams in some subjects in the faculty of arts, but it may be a waste of time for some other subjects."

He said he found it more engaging to give discretion to individual departments to make the choice most suitable for their needs.

Tony Hung, a professor at the university's Language Centre, predicted that unifying methods of assessment probably will stir up arguments among academic staff.

"But if the proposal is reasonable, most people may accept it," he added.

Hung admitted that anonymous marking, in which a candidate's name is not known to the marker, is not practiced at the university, but may be introduced. .

The Quality Assurance Council also pointed out that the university seldom uses data systematically to learn more about the performance of various programs, schools and faculties.

Vice-president (academic) Franklin Luk said some overseas universities have institutional research units to make the best use of data collected, but Baptist University lacks the resources to set up such a body.

The watchdog ordered that the university establish an independent academic consultation panel to review the quality of academic programs every six years.

The council also suggested the university introduce rigorous interim monitoring to ensure that departments follow up the recommendations made by the panel.

It also noted that although an annual reporting system has already been put in place in some departments, some of the interim reports handed in have the flavor of marketing documents than instruments of rigorous self-assessment.

Ng pledged to set up a panel to plan follow-up actions on the suggestions made by the council. The university will submit its proposals in six months, he said.

(HK Edition 09/16/2009 page1)