Professor Howard Davies, Associate Dean of the Faculty addressed an Outcome-based Education ("OBE") Approach Symposium on "From Here to There with OBA: But Where is Here and Where is There?" on 27 May 2009. A total of 400 participants from the institutions of higher education in Hong Kong attended.

Professor Davies addressed several conceptual and practical issues in relation to the outcome-based approach. He stressed the importance of ensuring the alignment of programme contents and pedagogy with the learning goals as well as methods of assessment. He emphasized that to be meaningful, the OBA must actually be implemented in the classroom and not remain the "on-paper" exercise which it has been for most faculty members.

Professor Davies is the co-convenor of OBATF (Task Force on Outcome-based Approaches in Student Learning) of the University Grants Committee of Hong Kong ("UGC"), organizer of the Symposium. The remit of the OBATF includes helping institutions of higher learning to weave the OBE outcomes into their curricula and monitoring their progress in this area.

Nine research projects submitted by members of the Faculty have secured funding to the tune of $4,210,846 from the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong for the academic year 2009-2010. This was announced by Professor Judy Tsui, Dean of the Faculty, on 3 July 2009.

Two of the projects with funding of $985,917 were from the School of Accounting and Finance. Three projects from the Department of Logistics and Maritime Studies were awarded $1,696,160 and four from the Department of Management and Marketing won $1,528,769.

The China Accounting and Finance Review (CAFR) International Symposium 2009 was held in Nanjing, China on 27 June 2009. Organized by the Faculty's School of Accounting and Finance (AF) and the School of Management of the Nanjing University (NJU), the event comprised 3 plenary sessions and 10 concurrent paper sessions.

Those officiating at the opening ceremony included Professor Hong Yinxing, Party Committee Secretary at NJU, Professor Ferdinand A. Gul, Head of AF, Professor Shuming Zhao, the Dean of the School of Business at NJU and Professor Chuanming Chen, the Dean of the School of Management at NJU.

The Symposium was preceded by a one-day doctoral consortium that drew 150 participants.

Ms Tong Yixing, Jamie, reading for a PhD in Accounting, has been awarded a scholarship for the academic year 2009-2010 under the RGC-Fulbright Hong Kong Dissertation Research Program. The scholarship will take her as a visiting pre-doctorate research scholar to The University of Texas, Dallas (UTD) for a period of up to six months. There, she will work on her dissertation entitled, Corporate Board, R&D Valuation, and Cost of Capital. At the end of her stint at the UTD, she will return to Hong Kong for her PhD dissertation defence.

Mr Fung Ho Hui and Ms Ho Sze Ting from the School of Accounting and Finance (AF) were each awarded a PricewaterhouseCoopers Scholarship for Accounting Excellence. The award carries a cash price and a summer internship with a PricewaterhouseCoopers firm.

The scholarship, for full-time first year undergraduates, aims to reward outstanding accounting students.

A team of 5 students from the Department of Logistics and Maritime Studies secured the third place at CILTHK Student Day 2009 on 21 March. Team members Ms Chan Kong Keow, Ms Wong Siu Wah, Mr Chan Ka Ho, Mr Wong Ho Tai and Ms Chan Ka Yu were assigned a case on the day of the competition. Later, on the same day, they presented their views on the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link. This rail link will, on completion, become part of the National High Speed Rail Network of the PRC.

The competition, with participants from nine higher education institutions in Hong Kong and Macau, was hosted by The Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport in Hong Kong (CILTHK).

Two teams of students won the Certificate of Excellence at the HSBC Young Entrepreneur Awards, an annual business plan writing competition for post-secondary students.

Mr Lo Lap Chung, Ms Ko Ho Ting and Mr Kwong Wai Kit from the School of Accounting and Finance won the certificate for their proposed "Turf Bus". Their plan envisaged turfing the roofs of buses which account for the largest area of "rooftops" in terms of vehicles on Hong Kong roads. The turf on the roofs would, by absorbing carbon dioxide, contribute to a greener Hong Kong.

Ms Tang Chi Man, Mr Leung Ka Wing and Mr Fan Ka Hang, all from the Department of Management and Marketing, worked out a plan for their "All-in-one Cruet" to replace traditional seasonings containers and sachets. Their cruet would be more hygienic, minimize wastage and add style to a meal.

Marketing student Mr Yau Chi Wai, Billy has secured the post of Post-Earthquake Reconstruction Assistant with the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Chengdu, China. The voluntary assistantship runs from June to August 2009. Mr Yau, who beat several hundred other applicants for the post, liaises with non-governmental organizations from Hong Kong serving the victims of the 2008 earthquake. He is also involved in the collection and analysis of data relating to the reconstruction projects in the Sichuan province.

Mr Yau will be in Year III of his programme of study in the coming academic year.