President Prof. Tam Sheung-wai presents a lucky draw prize to a staff member of Registry at the OUHK closing-of-the-year luncheon on 18 January 2001.

The jade (administrative) team gave a colourful performance at the luncheon. The trophy went to the sapphire (academic) team.

This issue's cover story highlights the opening of the OUHK's Island Learning Centre in Sheung Wan. The $149-million centre is equipped with advanced teaching and learning facilities, including 160 Internet-accessible personal computers installed in a computer laboratory and a student lounge. We hope students will take advantage of these modern learning tools to get versed not only in information technology and its applications, but also in other fields of knowledge.

The centre will help us save on rental for using the facilities of other tertiary institutions and schools. Making enquiries and contacting the University is now more convenient, with the public and students having the choice of this venue on Hong Kong Island, as well as the Ho Man Tin campus in Kowloon.

The completion of the Centre is part of the OUHK's move towards its goal of becoming a centre of excellence in distance and adult education. We are glad to see that the seeds of open education that we planted over the last 11 years have begun to bear fruit not only in Hong Kong, but also in the mainland and the rest of Asia. The OUHK has been offering business administration programmes in the mainland since 1997 and this issue carries a report on the first batch of MBA graduates there.

Our track record has shown that open and distance education is a wonderful and effective means of raising the quality of existing human resources -- a view promoted by the Chinese Vice-Minister of Education Prof. Wei Yu when she delivered a talk at the Island Learning Centre last year (see page 7 for excerpts of her speech). Sir John Daniel, Vice-Chancellor of the UK Open University agreed with Prof. Yu, and he reminded us on page 8 that online learning is a means of widening educational opportunities, rather than an end in itself. We are also honoured to include in this issue the thoughts on lifelong learning of Prof. Louis Cha, Mr Raymond Kwok and Dr Li Ka-shing.

In addition, there is coverage of the Ninth Congregation, study tips and learning experiences from students and graduates, as well as an array of student activities. We hope you like our new look and format. Please give us your views by replying to the attached questionnaire.