| Governance Structure of Sub-degree Providing Units (SDPUs) |
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| 3.1. | Self-financed Sub-degree Programme Units (SSPUs) and SDPUs |
“SSPUs” is a term formerly adopted by the JQRC in its last Institutional Review in 2008. At that time, “SSPUs” was defined as the university extension units, research institutes, faculty, school, department and the then community college that offered self-financed sub-degree programmes.
The term “SDPU” was introduced in the Audit Manual: Sub-degree Operations of University Grants Committee-funded Universities (Quality Assurance Council, 2017). It refers to all organisational units offering sub-degree level programmes within University Grants Committee (UGC)-funded universities. From a QA perspective, it refers to a sizeable unit with the responsibility of quality assuring the portfolio of programme offerings for the SPCEPs under the University.
| 3.2. | Role of SDPU |
For CUHK, a SDPU can be either a UGC-funded academic faculty or a wholly self-financed university extension unit such as the CUSCS, assuming a supervisory role in overseeing the activities of its affiliated units.
| 3.3. | Internal Governance Structure of the SDPUs |
The eight Faculties of the University are the Faculty of Arts, Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Medicine, Law, Science and Social Science offering programmes approved by the Senate mainly at HKQF Levels 5-7. Some Faculties are offering SPCEPs for a niche segment.
A Faculty is governed by a Board of Faculty, i.e. a statutory body of the University and is governed by paragraph 7 of Statute 15 of the University Statutes (Appendix 3-1). Faculty Boards report to the Senate whereas Faculty Deans report to the Provost. A Faculty Board can delegate its supervisory role to a Board or a Committee underneath in overseeing the professional and continuing education programmes and receive regular reports as monitoring of their activities. The governing structure of Faculties is shown in Appendix 3-2.
Each affiliated unit is governed by a department board, school board, management committee or equivalent. Members are academics with expertise in a wide range of academic disciplines. An example of the duties and functions of the Boards of Departments is in Appendix 3-3.
To date, some affiliated units under the Faculty of Arts, Education, Medicine, and Social Science are engaged in the provision of quality self-financed professional programmes to satisfy societal needs. Affiliated units include schools, e.g. The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care under the Faculty of Medicine; research institutes, e.g. The Hong Kong Institute of Educational Research (HKIER) under the Faculty of Education; departments, e.g. Department of Social Work under the Faculty of Social Science; and centres, e.g. Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies, Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages under the Faculty of Arts.
The CUSCS is a wholly self-financed university extension unit, with its programmes quality assured by the Academic Board of the CUSCS with several standing committees. Details are covered in Section 3.4.
The Academic Board of the CUSCS reports to the Senate SPCEP (formerly the UExB) whereas the Director of the CUSCS reports to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education). The governance structure of the CUSCS is shown in Appendix 3-4.
| 3.4. | Quality Assurance Manual of the CUSCS |
A total of eight standing committees underpin the Academic Board of CUSCS in discharging the T&L activities. They include the Programme Planning and Development Committee (PPDC), Higher Diploma Programme Coordination and Management Committee (HDPCMC), Higher Diploma Programme Examination Board (HDPEB), Full-time Diploma Programme Coordination and Management Committee (FTD-PCMC), Full-time Diploma Programme Examination Board (FTD-PEB), Professional and Continuing Education Programme Coordination and Management Committee (PCE-PCMC), Professional and Continuing Education Programme Examination Board (PCE-PEB) and Admissions Committee (ADC).
The Full-time Programme Team and the Professional and Continuing Education Programme Team take charge of the delivery of academic programmes and courses, and the implementation of QA procedures.
In view of the diversity of its portfolio of SPCEP offerings, CUSCS developed a Quality Assurance Manual to ensure and enhance the standard and delivery quality of its academic programmes and courses.