Educating the next generation for change
Alan Cheung leads the Faculty of Education into a technological future
16 July 2026
Even before taking up his post as Dean of Education this January, Professor Alan Cheung Chi-keung was alert to the infinite shifts of education in Hong Kong in an era increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence (AI). Taking up the mantle as the Faculty of Education enters its seventh decade, the professor is focused on investigating how the latest innovations can enhance teaching, while also linking together talent, educational technology and society.
Professor Cheung’s vision aligns with the direction of Hong Kong’s recent education developments. The HKSAR Government aims to establish the city as a hub for international education, attracting talent and fostering the concurrent development of education, technology and human capital; at the same time, emphases have been placed on digital education and AI literacy, teacher training, and enhancing research infrastructure and support. The professor has therefore set about positioning the Faculty of Education so that it meets the various challenges in the 21st century.
From policy to technology
From a young age, Professor Cheung was mesmerised by the power of policy: by how it drew on society, culture, and even local politics itself, by how one single change could affect generations. Thus, he switched tracks from literature to education research, and embarked on an academic journey that has seen him become a notable voice on language teaching and educational technology.
In recent years, the HKSAR Government’s education reforms have focused on key areas such as professional development of teachers, digital literacy of students, and the applications of AI. In particular, the use of AI in learning, teaching and assessment has emerged as a key trend.
“These days, if you say you don’t know how to use AI, you’re not going to get employed,” the professor says with a rueful smile. “So the real issue is: how can we use it wisely, and ethically?” In his opinion, the key is to channel this know-how into the teaching, learning, and assessment cycle. He believes AI has the potential to transform language learning with its highly personalised feedback, adaptive pathways, and immersive practice environments, which allow learners to engage more deeply with authentic communication, and ultimately accelerate their linguistic development.
As such, the Faculty’s curriculum and training programmes are being modified to meet the times. “I encourage my students to use AI – after all, it’s useful and it saves time,” he says. In addition to encouraging teaching staff to permit the use of AI by students as long as it is declared, all students at the Faculty are required to take a course on AI and data sciences in education. Yet he also cautions against treating AI as an autopilot that can act as a substitute for thinking, rather than a co‑pilot that augments it. With such technologies becoming an inextricable part of teaching, he believes the goal is to work with the machine thoughtfully, so that students can cultivate higher‑order skills through critical, machine‑assisted learning, instead of surrendering their intellectual agency.
A human touch within a technological mind
Professor Cheung may be fascinated by technology’s potential to transform education, but a lifetime of research on the subject has not dimmed his enthusiasm for the human touch, especially when it comes to teaching.
“It’s extremely important for lecturers to care about their students,” he says. He prefers a smaller class over lecturing to an audience of hundreds, and tries his best to remember each student by name. He also gives thoughtful feedback to convey his expectations to students. Rather than one single end-of-term essay, he utilises formative assessments to track students’ progress. All these have certainly helped his students excel; in 2020, he won an Exemplary Teaching Award.
The professor’s emphasis on the personal touch aligns with the increasing attention being given to student well-being. Traditional Chinese wisdom holds that “diligence is constructive, while play has no benefit”, but this has led to many students focusing on academic excellence while neglecting their physical and psychological health. In recent years, however, the tide has shifted with this generation’s growing emphasis on healthy bodies and minds, being given equal weight with academic performance. As a result, in addition to fostering technological literacy among teachers and students, the Faculty is seeking to incorporate positive education and interactive elements into its curriculum, so that teachers are better equipped to meet societal expectations.
The Faculty of Education is also doing its part to reinforce this message. “We want to train teachers to have a holistic perspective,” says the professor. “You can’t just be good at teaching subject matters; but you also have to take care of the body and the mind.” The ultimate goal, he says, is to ensure that in helping teachers become their “whole” selves, they can influence their students and society at large.
Reforms on the basis of evidence
Evidence‑based reform has long been a defining feature of Professor Cheung’s academic life. Over the years, he has led numerous educational initiatives grounded in research and empirical evidence, each designed to not only elevate student learning and achievement, but also to enhance students’ well‑being as well as holistic development.
An example was Wealth by Virtue, a financial literacy programme for primary-age children which saw the professor teaming up with Associate Professor of Economics Terence Chong. “Kids these days have so little concept of money,” says Professor Cheung, “that they keep on losing their jackets or pencil cases, and expect their parents to buy them new ones.” The programme aimed to teach them the principles of personal finance, so that they could save for the future, and learn to be responsible. Instead of rolling the programme out all at once, the professors went for a “seeding” approach, introducing the scheme to 40 schools territory-wide, and allowing the concepts to slowly percolate through society.
A major driver behind all these programmes is Professor Cheung’s desire for positive change in society through evidence-based interventions. However, he underscores the need for caution and patience in gauging these programmes’ efficacy. “Effective evidence-based reform is not something that produces results in just one or two years,” he says. “It may span an entire key stage, or take up to six or twelve years.”
An international outlook, rooted in Hong Kong
Professor Cheung has also strengthened the Faculty’s commitment to internationalisation. How will he expand collaborations outside Hong Kong during his stewardship? He lists as an example CUHK’s flagship headmaster training programme. “We collaborate with many institutions and education networks in the Greater Bay Area, constantly exchanging experiences and ideas,” he explains. “We learn from each other. It’s a win-win relationship.”
The Faculty hopes in particular to open up collaborations with Belt and Road countries. The government is expanding international student recruitment through various policies, such as raising the cap on places for non-local students on taught programmes at publicly-funded institutions; it has also set up a dedicated team to promote the city through the “Study in Hong Kong” initiative. Plans for a University City are also being developed for the Northern Metropolis, allocating land resources for leading universities, research centres and collaborative facilities from both the Chinese Mainland and abroad to set up camp there.
Professor Cheung himself has been hard at work on this front, having recently returned from Thailand after finalising a memorandum of understanding between the two faculties of education at CUHK and Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, which will allow more master’s graduates from Chulalongkorn to pursue doctoral studies at CUHK.
Elsewhere, the Faculty is planning more knowledge exchange with Kazakh institutes in the coming years. “The quality of students in their international schools is very high – we should definitely bring more of them to Hong Kong.” Faculty staff are also on exchange in other Belt and Road partners like South Korea and Vietnam. Professor Cheung believes these places of immense potential bestow lessons that will ultimately bring education in the city to ever higher ground.
In an era dominated by AI and digital transformation, Professor Cheung’s arrival as Dean of Education comes with a rethink of how talent can be nurtured to educate the next generation. The measures he proposes not only ensure that the Faculty’s students remain competitive in Hong Kong, but also enable the international, comprehensive research university that is CUHK to continue shaping the future of society through education.
By Chamois Chui
Photos by Steven Yan
