Breaking News! đź“Ł
We are honored and thrilled to announce that we have been shortlisted for the Access, Diversity & Inclusion Award by QS Reimagine Education through our Enhancing Visibility for Vertical-Transfer Students (i.e., senior-year admission students) and Credit Transfer Information!
This remarkable accomplishment stands as a pivotal milestone for our SYA project, exemplifying its exceptional recognition and global prominence in the international arena.
To learn more about the impact of this global competition, please visit https://www.reimagine-education.com
#QSReimagine #EdTech #Innovation
@QS Quacquarelli Symonds
SYA Website: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/syaproject/
CICIS (Cross Institutional Credit-transfer Information System): https://cicis.polyu.edu.hk/
Instagram: hkpolyusyaproj
The UGC-Funded Teaching & Learning Project: “Enriching Senior Year Admissions Students’ Learning Experience through Curricular and Co-curricular activities in Hong Kong Universities” (SYA project) launched a new search function on April 1, which helps students to navigate the articulation information regarding the preferred degree program.
The searching function is a well-organized and user-friendly tool for the students who use it, including both Senior Year Admission (SYA) and sub-degree students. Students are now able to search for information to better understand the designated study pattern and reduced curriculum structure of different degree programs. The tool enables students to explore the historical credit transfer records from the sub-degree to degree programs and the credit transfer arrangement of articulation by simply entering three pieces of information, including 1) the name of the sub-degree program, 2) the institution where they took the course, and 3) the name of the degree program offered by UGC-funded universities.
With the student’s needs in mind, students can find out where they might receive block credit transfer and subject-to-subject credit transfer for the course they have already taken and determine if they can be exempt from taking a similar course by using this function. They are also going to be able to know the remaining credits they have to make up for the graduation requirement. For easier navigation, those remaining credits will be marked on the site with their subject title, suggested study year, and advanced study semester.
The newly added search function will hopefully benefit for students to find quick and accurate information regarding how their credits meet degree requirements. It offers students a user-friendly tool for exploring different programs and finding out if their current institution has an equivalent course. Comparing transferrable credits among sub-degree and degree programs increases the transparency of transfer credit policies and help students to facilitate the ideas of credit transfer. Students may make a more informed decision about their academic planning and make better arrangements for their future.
On 27 November, PolyU collaborated with Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ) and Federation for Self-financing Tertiary Education (FSTE) to organise an online conference themed “Credit Transfer Practices in Higher Education: Partnership for Success”, with Education Bureau (EDB) as the supporting organization.
This conference aimed at advancing local credit transfer practices with streamlined programme articulation and transparent information, exploring the integration of recognized overseas systems into the local education context and promoting a cross-institutional collaborative culture among sending and receiving institutions for the better learning experience of Senior Year Admitted (SYA) students.
Attracting more than 300 officials, academics and administrators from 55 organisations including government, sub-degree, self-financed and UGC-funded institutions and professional accreditation bodies. This conference offered a platform for local and overseas experts from Canada, Netherlands, USA to share valuable experiences in the development of, challenges on and support to credit transfer practices in higher education. The engaging interaction contributed to fruitful discussions which have given inspirational feedback to both audiences and speakers.
The conference was organized by the UGC-funded Teaching and Learning Project “Enriching Senior Year Places Students' Learning Experience through Curricular and Co-curricular Activities in Hong Kong's Universities” (The SYA Project) led by Dr Kin CHEUNG, Associate Professor of School of Nursing. City University of Hong Kong (Dr Bin Li as a co-leader), Hong Kong Baptist University (Prof Peter Benz as a co-leader), and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Prof Ka Ming Chow as a co-leader) are the partnering institutions of the SYA Project and the co-organizers of the conference.
For more details of the conference, please clecik HERE.
For more details of the project, please click HERE.
The UGC-Funded Teaching & Learning Project: “Enriching Senior Year Admissions Students’ Learning Experience through Curricular and Co-curricular activities in Hong Kong Universities” (SYA Project) announces that the beta-test for Cross Institution Credit-transfer Information System (CICIS) has been launched. The previous admission records of programmes admitting senior year students among the 4 participating universities of the project (PolyU, CityU, HKBU, CUHK) have been uploaded for usability review from target users.
CICIS is a one-off platform designated for Associate Degree and Higher Diploma graduates to scrutinize the credit transfer when they articulate to the undergraduate programmes offered by UGC-funded universities. The increased transparency from the convenient comparison of transferrable credits among sub-degree and degree progammes may help students to make better arrangements on their academic planning.
The Senior Year Admission (SYA) Project Team and The Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ) co-delivered a poster presentation about Hong Kong transfer students at the 18th annual National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students (NISTS) conference from 5 to 7 February 2020 in Atlanta, GA in U.S.A. Scholars and faculties gathered to discuss ways to support transfer students and to improve their experience through education, research and policy advocacy.
Project Team members Dr. Kin Cheung, Project Leader of SYA Project, Mr. Man Ng, Project Coordinator and Dr. Lillian Zhang, Postdoctoral Fellow, Registrars from the Qualifications Framework and Qualifications Register of HKCAAVQ Ms. Anne Lau, Head and Registrar and Ms. Reace Wong, Assistant Registrar, co-presented a poster titled "Community Transfer Students in Asian Higher Education Context". The discussion reflected that SYA students had heavier study load, less social support, lower self-efficacy, poorer adjustment to campus life, lower satisfaction with the university, and more mental health concerns, than direct entrants. The importance of the collaborative work with different stakeholders to enhance curricular alignment and the concerted effort in establishing the Credit Accumulation and Transfer Centralized Database were highlighted to provide a better learning experience to transfer students was also highlighted.
The global connections established in the conference and the overseas experiences learned from various successful cases of community college transfer will bring a positive impact in building a transfer-friendly culture in Hong Kong.
The Senior Year Admission (SYA) Project invited Mr. Santiago Bernal, the Assistant Director of Center for Community College Partnerships (CCCP) of the University of California, Los Angeles, to co-organize a workshop titled “From Sub-Degree to University: Facilitating students’ academic progression into degree programmes” at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on 22 May 2019.
34 Local educators from community colleges and universities participated in the workshop to facilitate the exchange of experience in credit transfer and articulation as well as support to transfer students between California and Hong Kong.
Mr. Bernal shared their experiences in developing academic partnerships between UCLA and California community colleges and the transfer-friendly culture among tertiary institutions. He also expressed the importance of assisting community college transfer students to increase their academic preparation and competitiveness. Local educators from different community colleges and universities also shared their institutional policies and the circumstances of credit transfer. This workshop is expected to serve as the first step for both international and local collaboration for the advancement of Hong Kong transfer students.
Student Ambassadors of SYA Project joined the lunch after workshop to share their transfer experiences from the perspective of local student. They also accompanied Mr. Bernal to explore city’s top attractions and to experience local culture at weekend.
The Senior Year Admission (SYA) Project Team Members attended and presented at the Lilly-Asia Conference on Evidence-Based Teaching and Learning which was held at the Hong Kong Baptist University from 16 to 18 May 2019. Oral and poster presentations about the situations of local SYA students and Asian college transfer students were delivered.
Academic Staff from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Dennis Foung, Teaching Fellow of English Language Centre, Dr. Kin Cheung, Project Leader of SYA Project, Dr. Julia Chen, Associate Professor of Department of English, and Dr. Linda Lin, Lecturer of English Language Centre, co-presented the results of a research project titled “Exploring the Language Needs of College Transfer Students in Asia”. The presentation revealed the difference in the performance in English courses between SYA students and direct-entry students as well as the academic factors affecting the performance of SYA students in English courses.
The poster presentation titled “Needs of and Support to Senior-Year Admitted (Community-College Transfer) Students” showed the results of needs assessment, indicating that SYA students have heavier study load, less social support, lower self-efficacy, and more mental health concerns than non-SYA students.
The conference has internationally connected innovative educators of all disciplines in higher education and placed the needs of SYA students in Hong Kong and college transfer students in Asia under the spotlight.