EDUCATION
156
Candidates for overseas examinations totalled 197 000, of whom 61 100 sat for the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry examinations, 45 000 for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, and 18 500 for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).
The Hong Kong Council for Academic Accreditation
The council is an independent statutory body with 22 members, including senior academics from Hong Kong and overseas, and local industrialists and business people. Its activities are administered by a small professional secretariat with expertise and experience in higher education and quality assurance.
The council reviews the non-university degree-awarding institutions and their individual courses, to ensure that the degrees they award meet internationally-recognised standards. During the year, degree programmes were validated and standards were monitored at Lingnan College, the Open Learning Institute of Hong Kong and the Academy for Performing Arts. Seminars and professional development workshops on topics of quality assurance in higher education were held, and these attracted participants from all tertiary institutions. The council maintains a register of over 1 000 local and overseas academics and other experts, who supply members for institutional review and validation teams. It also assists tertiary institutions in their internal validation of degree programmes by drawing upon this register of specialists.
== Advice was provided during the year to the government and other bodies on the standard of local and overseas institutions and the status of their awards. In particular, advice was given to the Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications on the academic quality and professional relevance of teacher training and qualifications, and the recogni- tion of non-local qualifications; to a number of government departments on the acceptance of foreign qualifications; and to professional bodies on accreditation procedures.
The council also advised the government on draft legislation aiming to control the operation of non-local tertiary institutions and professional bodies in Hong Kong. During the year, it published the first issue of an academic programmes guide which lists comprehensive information on the study courses offered by overseas institutions in the territory.
The council maintains contacts with quality assurance and accreditation bodies around the world. It has stimulated the creation of an international network for quality assurance agencies in higher education, for which it provides administrative and editorial support. It also maintains a close relationship with accreditation authorities in China. During 1994, its members visited China to participate in discussions and meetings with these organisations.
School Management Committees
Each school registered under the Education Ordinance has a management committee, which is responsible for the proper education of the pupils and operation of the school. One manager must be registered as the supervisor, whose main role is to be the point of contact between the management committee and the Education Department.
Each aided primary or secondary school is operated under a letter of agreement with a sponsoring body, which contributes the full cost of furnishing and equipping the premises, and nominates the first supervisor of the school. In the 1994–95 school year, a total of 1 110