Yip, Shea-ping

English

Arrow@TUDublin

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS Hong Kong RAE 2020: Perspective from a department hosting two healthcare disciplines  Shea-ping Yip Professor and Head Department of Health Technology and Informatics The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 1 For HUCBMS Conference 2019, Dublin, Ireland; 3-4 September 2019. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  University Grants Committee (UGC)  The non-statutory body that advises the Hong Kong Government on the funding and strategic development of higher education in Hong Kong  UGC’s roles & functions:  Oversee the deployment of funds for the strategic development of the higher education sector  support the continuous development of the higher education sector to achieve greater impact and recognition  give steering advice to the higher education sector from a system perspective and facilitate institutions to fulfill their distinctive roles  facilitate the sustainable development of higher education to meet the demands of the changing times  ……  There are 8 UGC-funded universities in Hong Kong  PolyU is one of them 2 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)  Part of UGC’s commitment to assessing the performance of the UGC-funded universities  Intended to encourage world-class research and drive excellence  Assesses the research quality of the UGC-funded universities by using international benchmarks to delineate their areas of relative strength and make recommendations for further improvements  Has already conducted five RAEs: 1993, 1996, 1999, 2006 and 2014  Next RAE:  To be conducted in 2020 (RAE 2020)  The first RAE that includes research impact as part of the assessment with a view to encouraging the conduct of research of broader social relevance with high economic and social benefits  Similar to UK’s REF 2014 3 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  RAE 2020  Objectives:  Assess the research quality of UGC-funded universities by international standards  Identify excellent research across the spectrum of submissions to drive excellence and encourage world-class research  Produce assessment outcomes to inform the distribution of part of the Research Portion of the UGC Block Grant in a publicly accountable manner  Provide accountability for public investment in research and produce evidence of the benefits of this investment  Provide robust benchmarking information and establish reputational yardsticks for use within the UGC section and for public information  Delineate universities’ areas of relative strength and identify emerging research areas and opportunities for development  4 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  RAE 2020  Elements of assessment & relative weightings:  Research outputs – 70%  Impact – 15% (new in RAE 2020)  Environment – 15%  Period of assessment:  6 years  (1 October 2013 to 30 September 2019)  For Impact, the underpinning research can be undertaken during the period of 1 January 2000 to 30 September 2019 (20 years) 5 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  RAE 2020  13 panels incorporating a total of 41 units of assessments (UoAs):           …… …… 6 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  RAE 2020  Research areas:  69 research areas under 41 UoAs  UoA 5 (nursing, optometry, rehabilitation sciences and other health care professions)  4 research areas under UoA 5:  5a Nursing  5b Other health care professions  5c Optometry  5d Rehabilitation sciences  UoA 5 was under 4 separate cost centres in RAE 2014  Each UoA is a submitting unit in RAE 2020 (while each cost centre was a submitting unit in RAE 2104) 7 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  RAE 2020  Submitted items (papers / impact case studies / environment) are assessed and rated as  4* World leading / outstanding impacts / conducive to  producing research of world-leading quality  3* Internationally excellent / considerable impacts /  conducive to producing research of internationally  excellent  quality  2* International standing / some impacts / conducive to  producing research of internationally recognised quality  1* Limited originality / limited impacts / conducive to  producing  research of limited quality  Unclassified  Each UoA will have an overall quality profile produced by summing the 3 sub-profiles with appropriate weightings 8 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  A brief history of PolyU  The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU)  Founded in 1937 as the Government Trade School  In 1947 as the Hong Kong Technical College  In 1972 as the Hong Kong Polytechnic  Upgraded to university status in November 1994 as PolyU  We celebrated our 80th anniversary 2 years ago  http://www.polyu.edu.hk/web/en/home/index.html 9 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  Where are we? 10 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  A brief overview of PolyU  Ranking highlights 11 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  A brief overview of PolyU  Current staff strength (as of 31 October 2017) 12 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  A brief overview of PolyU  Total student enrolment (2017/18): 27,088 13 (78.6%) (18.4%) (3.1%) (57.1%) (27.9%) (6.9%) (5.8%) (2.3%) DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  A brief overview of PolyU  The official medium for instruction is English  Has 25 departments/schools within 6 Faculties plus 2 independent schools  Faculty of Health and Social Sciences (FHSS) is one of the 6 Faculties  FHSS has 5 departments/schools  Department of Applied Social Sciences  Department of Health Technology and Informatics (HTI)  Department of Rehabilitation Sciences  School of Nursing  School of Optometry 14 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  A brief overview of HTI  Department of Health Technology and Informatics (HTI)  Officially inaugurated as a new department on 1 September 2005 within Faculty of Health and Social Sciences (FHSS)  Host of two disciplines: Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) and Radiography (RAD)  However, MLS and RAD were first offered in the then Hong Kong Polytechnic as sub-degree programmes in 1978 under different departments (i.e. 41 years’ history)  http://www.polyu.edu.hk/hti/ 15 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  Staff structure of HTI (as of September 2019)  21 full-time academic staff  (Chair Prof/Prof/Associate Prof/Assistant Prof)  MLS: 11 (1/1/6/3) – including 1 Prof as Head     RAD:  9 (0/0/6/3) – including 2 Associate Prof as Associate Heads  Faculty-based strategic research area: 1 Assistant Professor  Still actively recruiting more academic staff (all ranks)  Those with appointment start date on 1 September 2017 or afterwards are not included in RAE 2020   8 Senior Clinical Associate / Clinical Associates / Instructors  MLS: 3  (0/0/3)  RAD: 5  (1/3/1)  These colleagues are not appraised for their research (also not included in RAE 2020) 16 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  Academic programmes  4-year Full-time BSc programmes – funded by UGC  BSc(Hons) in Medical Laboratory Science  BSc(Hons) in Radiography  Both are within top 4 degree programmes within PolyU in terms of student quality  Taught master programmes – self-financed (mostly part-time)  MSc in Medical Laboratory Science  MSc in Medical Imaging & Radiation Science  Planning of a new MSc Medical Physics  Research degree studies  MPhil  PhD (34 + 9 as of today)  Mostly full-time study 17 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS Thematic Research Area • Health and Disease: From Mechanism to Clinical Application - Cancer - Metabolic and Ocular Disorders - Immunity and Infection - Haemodynamics and Vascular Disorders - http://www.polyu.edu.hk/hti/en/research/research-areas.html 18 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  University Research Facility (URF) in  Life Sciences (ULS)  https://uls.polyu.edu.hk/  Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience (UBSN)  https://ubsn.polyu.edu.hk/  Chemical and Environmental Analysis (UCEA)  https://ucea.polyu.edu.hk/  3D Printing (U3DP)  https://u3dp.polyu.edu.hk/  Materials Characterization and Device Fabrication (UMF)  http://www.umf.polyu.edu.hk/  Big Data Analysis (UBDA)  https://www.polyu.edu.hk/ubda/ 19 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  Preparation of RAE 2020  Started in early 2017 university-wide  Coordinator of each UoA  Coordinator of UoA 5 working with Department Heads and assisted by Chairmen of their respective Departmental Research Committees  Research output (4 paper per eligible staff member)  Papers assessed by two external consultants (UK), done separately by each department  Papers rated 2* or below to be replaced if possible  Provided short-term funding to colleagues to generate more data for better papers if appropriate 20 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  Preparation of RAE 2020  Research impact  5 impact case studies for UoA   Working in groups with members from different departments  External consultants give advice on impact cases (& environment)  A retired Chair Professor from HTI appointed to help draft the cases  Issues: Evidences supporting the claim of impact hard to collect  HTI: contributed and involved in 2 cases 21 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  Preparation of RAE 2020  Research environment  Overview, research strategy, people, income, infrastructure, collaborations, esteem, and contributions to the discipline or research base   Collection of hard data and other relevant information from different departments  External consultants give advice on environment (& impact cases)  A retired Chair Professor from HTI appointed to help draft the environment document 22 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  Our strategies to improve research performance and prepare for RAE 2020  People: staffing policies  Active recruitment for replacing retired staff  Looking for candidates with strong research track record (with 3*/4* papers; successful grant applications) and/or background in MLS or Radiography  Start-up research package plus 1 PhD student for new staff  Less teaching in the first 1-2 years if possible  Communal lab design: no need to spend in setting labs or buying instruments  Mentorship programme for new assistant professors  Major reviews for new assistant professors within 6 years (university policy)  Stringent conditions for getting people of teaching track approved (these staff are NOT included in RAE) (university policy) 23 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  Our strategies to improve research performance and prepare for RAE 2020  Infrastructure  Communal lab design: no need for individual PIs to spend in setting labs or buying expensive instruments  A new position of Scientific Officer was created: managing research labs and training of research students/personnel for using instruments in our research labs  University research facilities (URFs)  Equipped with many expensive research instruments  URFs for Life Science, Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience, Dig Data Analysis are particularly useful to our colleagues  All manned by support staff (PhD-qualified scientific officers)  Nominal charges for usage 24 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  Our strategies to improve research performance and prepare for RAE 2020  Research strategy (1)  Seed funding for producing pilot data for grant applications  Sharing of successful experience in securing grants (departmental/faculty)  Compulsory internal vetting of research proposals for major funding  Promotion of quality rather than quantity  Revising criteria for appraising research performance: the final rating affects merit-based salary adjustment on an annual basis  HK$100,000 (as research fund) for papers with impact factor of 10 or above with key authorship 25 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  Our strategies to improve research performance and prepare for RAE 2020  Research strategy (2)   Increasing research student numbers  Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme  Students supported by Teaching Postgraduate Scheme (TPS)  Students supported by external grants  Promoting and facilitating grant applications from all sources (local, Mainland China and overseas)  Possible matching of secured external grants  Financial support of publication charges (by our Faculty)  Research student-led weekly research seminars for presentations by research students  Annual HTI Postgraduate Symposium 26 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  Our strategies to improve research performance and prepare for RAE 2020  Research strategy (3)   Promoting collaboration between colleagues from the two disciplines  Promoting collaboration with researchers outside the Department/Universities  Departmental financial support of conference attendance  Promoting conducive research environment  Announcement of successful grant applications by Head or DRC Chairman  Announcement of staff promotion by Head  Protection of young researchers from admin duties  27 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS  Our strategies to improve research performance and prepare for RAE 2020  What are the immediate outcomes in the past few years?  More successful grant applicants (local, Mainland China and overseas), and also higher success rates  Many more research students above the 12 FTEs allocated to the Department  Many more papers with higher impact factors   Will have to wait for the RAE 2020 results (announced in early 20210 28 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATICS 29 https://www.polyu.edu.hk/hti/en/about-hti/activities-and-achievements.html Thank you! Prof. Shea-ping Yip Department of Health Technology & Informatics The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 30 

Hong Kong RAE 2020: Perspective From a Department Hosting Two Healthcare Disciplines

https://arrow.tudublin.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=hucbms

Hong Kong RAE 2020: Perspective From a Department Hosting Two Healthcare Disciplines

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Arrow@TUDublin