Highlights of International Achievements

International/ Regional Research Leadership:

• Research Transformation at HKIEd (2008-2014). As Vice-President (RD) since 2008 to 2014, Prof. Y.C. Cheng had led a fundamental transformation of the infra-structure, culture, capacity, and performance of HKIEd in research with amazingly successful outcomes. For example, in 2006-07 the Institute had only 7 ongoing RGC projects with less than HK$4 million in total but as of 1 January 2014, it had 80 on-going RGC projects with a total of HK$50.4 million. In the past two exercises (2012-2014), the Institute had been ranked 1st or 2nd for overall GRF and ECS results in areas of Education, Psychology and Linguistics; and ranked 3rd in the whole Humanities and Social Sciences Panel in terms of awarded projects or awarded amounts. In particular, for ECS, the Institute had been ranked 1st in both Education and Psychology and Linguistics in the years of 2012-2014. In the QS University Ranking by Subject in 2015, the Institute was ranked No. 3rd in Asia and 15th in the world in Education.
  
  
• WERA. As one of key founders, Prof. Cheng was the President (2012-2014) of the World Educational Research Association (WERA) including over 27 key national and international educational research associations in different parts of the world as members, such as American Educational Research Association (AERA), European Educational Research Association (EERA), Mexican Educational Research Association, etc. Previously, he was the interim-vice president (2008-2010) and president-elect (2010-2012). WERA aims to advance education research development worldwide through creating various initiatives, platforms and opportunities for international collaboration and innovation.
  
  
• APERA. Prof. Cheng was the President (2004-08) of the Asia-Pacific Educational Research Association that was established in 2001 by 22 national and international organizations and institutions from 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific Region, including UNESCO-ACEID, Australian Council of Educational Research, National Institute of Educational Research of Japan, Office of National Education Commission of Thailand, etc. The mission of APERA is to support and encourage educational research in the Asia-Pacific Region and to build stronger links between research, policy, and practice in education. He was the founding Vice-President in 2001-2004.
  
  
• RGC/UGC. Appointed by HK Government, he had served as a full member of the University Grants Committee (1998-2002), a panel member of Research Grants Council (1997-2002), and a member of the Quality Education Fund Steering Committee (1998-2000) of the Hong Kong SAR Government. Through these high-level services, he contributed to the development of higher education and research as well as school innovation in Hong Kong at the system level.

Academic Publications:

Prof. Cheng’s research and academic publications are mainly in areas of education effectiveness, paradigm shift, leadership, school management, education reform and teacher education.

• 10 Authored Academic Books: Published mainly by international or regional publishers (e.g. Falmer Press, Routledge, Springer, etc.). Among them,
  
  Cheng, Y.C. (1996). School effectiveness and school-based management: A mechanism for development, London, (pp. 1-203) UK: The Falmer Press. It has been translated and published into 4 languages including English, Simplified and Complicated Chinese, and Korean. It is one of the 20 books in the world on educational management and leadership highly recommended by the National College of School Leadership of the UK Government.
  
  
• 15 Edited Academic Books: Published mainly by Springer, Kluwer, Sense, Swets and Zeitlinger, and HKIEd.
  
  
• Over 250 Academic Journal Articles & Book Chapters: Published mainly in Australia, Hong Kong, Korea, Mainland, Netherlands, Germany, Slovenia, Israel, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, USA, and UK. Some of his publications have been translated into Chinese, Hebrew, Korean, Spanish, Czech, Thai and Persian languages.
  
  
• Journal Editorship: Associate editor of the International Journal of Educational Management (UK) (since 2006 to now); Editor in chief of the Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education and Development (1998-2003); International editor of Contemporary Educational Research Quarterly.

International Awards:

• 9 Outstanding Paper Awards and Highly Commended Paper Awards in the Annual Awards for Excellence of the Literati Club/Literati Network in UK in 1995, 1996-98, 2001, 2004-05, 2008 and 2017. Cheng's research on school-based management and educational effectiveness has won him a number of international awards and recognition. In 1994, he was invited to give a keynote speech on his theory at the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement held in Melbourne Australia and in the same year his article "Theory and Characteristics of School-Based Management", which was published in the International Journal of Educational Management, won the Award of Excellence as Outstanding Paper of the Literati Club in UK In 1997, 1998 and 2004, three of his co-authored articles on school-based management had also been awarded as highly commended papers and the outstanding paper respectively.

• Fellow Award of the Asia-Pacific Educational Research Association in 2008 in recognition of his excellent contribution to educational research in the Region.

International Impacts and Invitations:

In worldwide recognition of significant impacts of Prof. Cheng’s research and academic theories in areas of educational effectiveness, school-based management, paradigm shift, education reforms and teacher education, there have been numerous international invitations to him in the past 20 years:

• Over 125 Keynote/Plenary/Prestigious Speeches at International/National Conferences: invited by national and international organizations worldwide, such as APEC, UNESCO, UNICEF, ICER, ICSEI, Euro-Asian Economic Forum, APERA, WERA, IBO, Ford Foundation, World Bank, SEAMEO, AIAER (India), ONEC/OEC (Thailand), ACEA (Australia), NIER (Japan), MOE of Israel, Malaysia, iAPED,…etc.
  
  
• A wide range of international and national appointments or prestigious invitations as advisor, chairman, and consultant, such as chairman of Tin Ka Ping Foundation’s advisory board, panel advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, international juror for the 2014 WISE Awards, international advisor to Saudi Arabian Education Reform, consultant for UNESCO projects, expert member for OCED-PISA project, honorary university professors for 4 normal universities in China and one national university in Korea, etc.
  
  
• Advisory board member for 17 international journals and 4 international book series
  
  
• Success in 8 Competitive RGC-funded Research Projects (5 research projects as principal investigator and 3 projects as co-investigator) in addition to other sources of funding.