Research Direction
Lingnan aspires to be a fine research university: it wants its excellent faculty to fulfil their intellectual potential and to provide teaching that is informed and inspired by their research. This small and collegial campus community is ideally suited to the pursuit of research excellence and to the climate of flexible inquiry and discussion which lies at the heart of the liberal arts ethos. In order further to advance its reputation as a liberal arts university which excels in both teaching and research, Lingnan will continue to pursue the highest standards of scholarship in our focused areas of research, and in other areas as well.
 

2006 RAE Results Confirm Lingnan' s Excellence in Research

Whilst some liberal arts colleges do not require or pride themselves on a high level of staff research, others have earned—as we do—major research reputations by encouraging and/or requiring staff research, often on the assumption that such research, far from depleting energies that might otherwise be spent on teaching, in fact nourishes and inspires outstanding teaching. The UGC’s 2006 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) results confirmed Lingnan’s research strength, apart from our distinctiveness in teaching and learning. The University is very pleased to learn that its research strengths stretch across all its three academic areas, i.e. arts, social sciences and business studies.

1) Its institution-wide research performance index doubled to 76.35% from 38.85% in the last RAE in 1999. Lingnan is happy to note that its overall research index of 76.35% places itself as one of the best performing UGC-funded institutions in terms of the 2006 RAE results. Indeed, Lingnan ranked fourth after the three “research intensive” universities.

2) Lingnan performed well in all the three RAE panels (namely Business Studies & Economics Panel, Social Sciences Panel and Humanities Panel) under which its thirteen academic departments are grouped. The research indexes of all its three panels surpassed the sector-wide average. In fact, its Business Studies and Economics Panel ranked second with an index of 84.14% (see Table 1).

3) In terms of the nine cost centres which Lingnan were assessed, the research indexes of seven cost centres, namely (1) Accountancy, (2) Business Studies, (3) Economics, (4) Other Social Sciences (Politics & Sociology), (5) Chinese, (6) English, and (7) Translation surpassed the sector-wide average. As shown in the attached Table 2, the research indexes of Lingnan' s cost centres compare very favourably with those of the other universities in Hong Kong. It is believed that at least one of Lingnan' s fields ranks first among the eight UGC-funded institutions.

The results of Lingnan' s 2006 RAE demonstrate the remarkable achievement of the University in this area. Even though the UGC adopted a higher threshold standard this time than in the 1999 RAE, the institution-wide RAE index of Lingnan has surged from 38.85% in 1999 to 76.35% in the 2006 exercise.

Research Infrastructure
The Research and Postgraduate Studies Committee (RPSC) is charged with the formulation of policies for the promotion, conduct, supervision and funding of research in the University. It decides on all internal funding allocations and monitors progress of research projects funded by various grants. Research Panels at the Programme level undertake initial assessment of applications for research grants and make funding recommendations to the RPSC. The Office of Research and Staff Development provides administrative assistance to the Committee in the management of allocated grants to ensure that all funding and budgetary procedures are properly followed.

On the other hand, the University has established a number of Research Institutes and Centres to stimulate academic research that will enrich the faculty and enhance the research productivity of the University. In this capacity, the Institutes and Centres initiate innovative research projects, provide support to academic staff members in their research interests, and pursue research activities within the University and through external alliances that enhance high quality theoretical and applied research consistent with the mission and objectives of the University. The Management Board of Research Institutes serves as the governing body and is responsible for setting policies pertaining to all Research Institutes/Centres/Programmes.