Research and academic activities
The OUHK continued to organize talks on a wide range of topics with speakers from local and overseas academic, professional and government sectors during the year. The Tai Ning Lecture Series, which featured two education experts from Australia sponsored by the Wu Jieh Yee Charitable Foundation, was conducted in June 2002 and recorded for webcast on the OUHK homepage. The School of Arts and Social Sciences continued to organize a number of seminars on international and China studies. Nearly 1,700 people attended the 36 Lifelong Learning Seminars covering a wide range of topics organized by the Li Ka Shing Institute of Professional and Continuing Education (LiPACE).

The School of Business and Administration collaborated with the Institute of Continuing Education in the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences to organize a seminar on Chinese business case writing in Beijing in November 2002. More than 30 Mainland and Hong Kong academics from a number of renowned universities attended the seminar, which was part of a project involving the publication of a case book for the School's students in Hong Kong and the Mainland. It also invited top executives from business organizations to give professional seminars on banking, performance management, comparative management and the new code of conduct for stock dealers for its students.

A research paper 'Contribution of learning to life satisfaction: a cross-cultural study of older adults' learning experience', jointly written by LiPACE Director Prof. Lui Yu-hon and Lecturer Ms Angela Leung with Prof. Iris Chi, Director of the Sau Po Centre on Ageing, the University of Hong Kong, was selected as the 'Outstanding Paper' at the 10th Annual Congress of Gerontology organized by the Hong Kong Association of Gerontology in 2002. The paper was derived from the research 'Overseas experience in providing continuing education for older persons' commissioned earlier by the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau of the Government.

LiPACE was also invited by the Women's Commission of the Hong Kong Government to devise an unconventional learning programme to enhance women's ability for self development. In addition, it collaborated with the Doctor's Union to develop a certificate course for clinic assistants.

The School of Education and Languages was commissioned by the Curriculum Development Institute to develop another web-based course Leadership for Curriculum Change for curriculum leaders in primary schools. Academic staff of the School also conducted staff development workshops for teachers in primary and secondary schools.

Centre for Research in Distance and Adult Learning
The Centre for Research in Distance and Adult Learning (CRIDAL) continued to provide a focus for the University's mission-related research activities. As well as engaging in research projects (four of which were completed during the year), CRIDAL organizes seminars, disseminates information on relevant research and fosters links with overseas and Mainland China scholars.

It hosted the Second Conference on Research in Distance and Adult Learning in Asia in June 2002 and compiled the papers presented in a CD-ROM. Selected papers from the Conference relevant to the topic of online learning were updated for a book Advancing Online Learning in Asia, which was published by the OUHK Press. Other publications for the year included An English-Chinese Dictionary of Open and Distance Education, which was the outcome of a joint project with China Central Radio and Television University (CCRTVU) and the National Open University in Taiwan. Twenty articles written by one of CRIDAL's Research Fellows and other OUHK academics from 1999 to 2002 were compiled in a book The Current State and Future Trends in Open and Distance Education published by the CCRTVU Press.

Scholars from countries such as Iran, the UK, India and Mainland China spent extended periods at the OUHK under various visiting fellowship schemes sponsored by the OUHK, the Croucher Foundation and the Commonwealth of Learning.

RIDALink (Research in Distance and Adult Learning Link), a monthly online newsletter published by CRIDAL, continued to update readers on the latest findings and developments in the field. CRIDAL also serves as the host of the East Asia site of the Global Distance Education Network, a collaborative project supported by the World Bank and the Commonwealth of Learning. The number of publications available on the multi-lingual (Chinese, English, Korean and Japanese) site increased markedly during the year.

International and Mainland links
OUHK staff have served as consultants for various research, training and development projects conducted by international organizations. Since September 2001 the Director of CRIDAL, Prof. Olugbemiro Jegede, has been seconded to the National Open University of Nigeria to serve as Chief Planning Officer.

President Prof. Tam Sheung-wai completed his four-year term of office as the elected Vice President of the Chinese Cultural and Linguistic Region of the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) and was elected a Council member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) based in London. Formed in 1938 and based in Oslo, Norway, the ICDE is officially recognized by the United Nations as the global non-governmental organization in the field of open and distance learning and now has member institutions from more than 140 countries. The ACU is the oldest international association of universities and now has over 500 member universities from around the world. Prof. Tam was also appointed by the Ministry of Education as an online teaching adviser and assessor of the research work on the reform of the CCRTVU.

Prof. Danny Wong, Vice President (Academic), was elected as the ICDE's Vice President for Asia.

The OUHK is also a member of the World Alliance in Distance Education (WADE), whose three other members are Athabasca University in Canada, Deakin University in Australia and the Open University in the UK. The Alliance was formed with the aim of jointly offering courses to students worldwide, as well as developing new and innovative approaches to distance education and the use of technologies in learning. A number of projects, including the establishment of a credit transfer arrangement, the formation of a working group for setting up quality assurance standards, and a pilot virtual exchange programme, were started during the year. The School of Business and Administration represented the University in talks with other partner universities on the joint offering of a Post-MBA programme internationally.

The OUHK has continued to receive numerous requests for visits, demonstrations and training all year round from local, Mainland China and overseas representatives, particularly from educational institutions. People would like to know more about its successful mode of open and distance education, especially technology-based services such as the Online Learning Environment and the Electronic Library. During the year workshops and seminars on these topics were conducted for academics and professionals from Mainland China – including many radio and television universities – and several Asian countries, such as Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.