In 1996, the University introduced the Teaching Fellowship scheme to reward and promote good teaching. This scheme has undergone continuous improvement to emphasize the importance attached to teaching by the University. The awardees under this scheme were all professoriate staff.

This scheme was replaced in 2008 by the Teaching Excellence Award Scheme (TEAS) to encourage participation by both professoriate and non-professoriate staff.

The assessment criteria have been refined to distinguish two levels of teaching excellence, covering excellence in teaching and curriculum design for the Outstanding Teaching Award, and the additional attainment of excellence in leadership and scholarship of teaching and learning for the University Distinguished Teaching Award.

The award amounts have also been increased to bring them closer to the Outstanding Researcher Awards. Awardees are expected to contribute to HKU’s teaching and learning initiatives, including sharing their work and participating in the work of preparing and implementing the 4-year Curriculum Reform.

Most Faculties administer their own teaching award schemes. In some, receiving the Faculty-level award is a pre-requisite for nomination for the University-level award. These schemes enable nominees to receive useful formative feedback from their Faculty peers.

HKU staff may view document 65/908 to learn the origin of the Teaching Excellence Award Scheme and document 602/509 to read the May 2009 circular from the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning).

• Teaching Excellence Award Scheme 2009
• Teaching Excellence Award Scheme 2010
• Teaching Excellence Award Scheme 2011