C E R C u l a r - Faculty of Education - The University of Hong Kong

CERCular
Vol.10, No.2, 2004
10th Anniversary: Highlights from CERC’s first decade
CERC’s 10th Anniversary
This year is CERC’s tenth anniversary. CERC was established in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong
in 1994, and has since then recorded substantial achievements in the field of comparative education.
CERC’s Establishment and Operation
The Comparative Education Research Centre (CERC) at the
University of Hong Kong was established in 1994, but its
origins go back to 1989. John Biggs, Head of the Department
of Education and Chairman of the Hong Kong Centre for the
International Association for the Evaluation of Educational
Achievement (IEA) at that time, proposed establishing a
Centre for Regional and Comparative Studies in Education.
However the proposal did not initially gather much momentum.
By 1994, the University climate was more favourable
to the establishment of centres, albeit on a limited funding
basis. New centres were to be virtual in nature, requiring no
additional resources but serving as magnets to concentrate
research expertise and generate more interest for sponsorship
and funding. In March 1995 the name ‘Comparative Education
Research Centre’ was formally adopted, and has been in use
since.
CERC’s operation depends on voluntary support from
its Management Committee and its members. The Management
Committee consists of an ex-officio member, three
elected members, and up to three co-opted members. Coopted
members can be either full or associate members. Staff
and students within the University are full members.
Associate members come from outside the University, and
their membership is by invitation from the Management
Committee. They influence the administration of CERC and
the networks developed by CERC. The founding members
of the Management Committee were all staff from the Departments
of Curriculum Studies and Education. Since then,
students have also joined the Committee.
Committee members have come from Australia, China,
Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Africa and the UK. They have
brought extensive international experience and perspectives from
their home countries. In addition to comparative education, the
committee members have specialised in educational administration,
planning and policy analysis, cultural studies, philosophy
of education, research methodology, curriculum studies,
language studies, and developmental psychology. The geographic
areas covered by these interests include Greater China,
the rest of Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America.
The committee has led efforts to develop links with
other comparative education centres. Several members of
the first committee participated in various IEA studies, including
the Third International Mathematics and Science
Study (TIMSS) and the Civic Education Study. CERC’s committee
members have also conducted research for international
organisations including UNESCO, UNICEF, the Asian
Development Bank, and the World Bank.
CERC’s directors have been: Lee Wing On (1994-96),
Mark Bray (1996-2001), Bob Adamson (2002), and Mark
Mason since 2002. Below are some reflections from each of
CERC’s directors.
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Reflections from CERC’s
four Directors
Lee Wing On
(1994-96)
Mark Bray
(1996-2001)
CERC deserves heartiest
congratulations on its
achievements leading
up to this 10t h anniv ersary
celebration. I was honoured to
be CERC’s inaugural director
and thus to contribute to its birth
and development.
The primary reason for establishing
CERC was the strong
critical mass in comparativ e
education in the Faculty of Education
at the University of Hong
Kong. CERC has often had five
colleagues, and sometimes even ten, attending the
major international comparative education conferences
around the world, thus raising the profile of the centre,
the faculty and the university. We all held, and continue
to hold, high aspirations for CERC: we want it to be a
leading comparative education centre in Asia, and
globally, and we want CERC to interpret educational
experiences in Asia for the world; we want to develop
Asian perspectives in comparative education; we want
CERC to be a leading centre of international comparative
education research publishing.
The centre was established and continues to operate
with little financial support from the University. I
quickly learned the skills of self-financing, and was
pleased that I was able to hand over responsibility for
CERC to the next director with a healthy balance sheet.
I congratulate CERC’s subsequent directors and staff on
their success in helping CERC to really fly, and more
importantly, in bringing the quality of Hong Kong scholarship
to the rest of the world. �
For most of the period bet
ween Oct ober 1996,
when I took ov er the
Directorship from Lee Wing On,
and January 2002, when I
handed over to Bob Adamson,
CERC was located on the
seventh floor of the Knowles
Building. Our premises were
small, but we grew steadily in
reputation and voice.
Looking back at the
minutes of the CERC Executive
Committee, I see much activity. I particularly want to
highlight six dimensions:
� CERC Publications. In 1997 CERC launched what
became its flagship series, CERC St udies in