Prof. Leong receives a souvenir from Mr Man Cheuk-fei, editor of Hong Kong Economic Journal Monthly, after speaking at a forum on developing Hong Kong into a regional education hub organized by the magazine on 12 April. Heads of the seven universities under the University Grants Committee also joined the forum.

With the recent gifts of $35 million from Dr Cheng Yu-tung and $5 million from Mr Solomon Lee, the total amount of donations towards our campus extension has reached $136 million.

Another piece of good news is the approval on 20 April of a Government grant of $62.8 million by the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council for our Centre for Innovation (CFI) project. As a project-based virtual entity, the CFI aims at developing a next-generation, student-centred learning environment that blends the virtues of distance learning, face-to-face teaching and online learning, and is characterized by flexibility, interactivity, connectivity, personalization and intelligence. On completion, the Centre will significantly improve the University's communication and service efficiency with a Web-based service delivery platform that electronically integrates all information and service systems. We will also develop a set of innovative tools using artificial intelligence to help students choose courses, make study plans and obtain more responsive support and tutoring services. The funding of this project will enable us to offer an array of degree programmes as well as free courses to local, mainland and overseas communities electronically. The first such degree programme the Master of Laws in Chinese Business Law (Chinese) will be launched in October this year. Our initial plan will include a total of 30 courses and 30 modules.

On the other hand, in line with the Government's implementation of a voucher scheme in kindergartens, we will help train more qualified teachers with the introduction of a Diploma in Early Childhood Education in the October semester.

Other developments at the OUHK are reported in detail in this issue of Openlink, which carries an interview with Prof. Kwok-kan Tam, the new Dean of the School of Arts and Social Sciences and an expert on the study of Ibsen. Also featured in this issue are the full-time programmes of the School, as part of the continuing series on individual Schools.

Happy reading!