Lingnan University to confer honorary doctorate upon three distinguished individuals

30 Oct 2017

Lingnan University will confer honorary doctorates upon three distinguished individuals in recognition of their outstanding achievements in their respective professions and valuable contributions to the well-being of society.  The honorary doctorate recipients are Dr Frank Law Sai-kit, Professor Simon Marginson and Professor Wang Gungwu.

 

The honorary doctorates will be awarded at the 48th Congregation of Lingnan University to be held at the Chan Tak Tai Auditorium on campus on 23 November 2017.

 

Biographies of the honorary doctorate recipients:

Dr Frank Law Sai-kit   Dr Frank Law Sai-kit

Being a leader in the dental industry, Dr Frank Law Sai-kit has joined the Executive Committee of the Hong Kong Dental Association for years and served as its Secretary, Vice-President and President (1983 to 1984).  He was appointed by the Government as a member of the Hong Kong Dental Council, a member of its Examination Board and Chairman of its Preliminary Investigation Committee, as well as the Honorary Treasurer of The Federation of Medical Societies.  Dr Law was a part-time lecturer at the Prince Philip Dental Hospital, the teaching hospital of The University of Hong Kong from 1982 to 1990.  He was an honorary lecturer of the School of Education at The Chinese University of Hong Kong from 1985 to 1989.  For a long period of time, Dr Law has coordinated free dental consultation service for non-governmental organisations, which benefitted many in need.

 

Dr Law had been a boarding student at Lingnan Primary School at Stubbs Road since Primary Three.  He strongly believes that education is the foundation of our society.  To carry forward the spirit of his alma mater, he spares no effort in serving Lingnan as Deputy Chairman and Director of Lingnan Education Organization, Director and Supervisor of Lingnan Secondary School, as well as Director of Lingnan Dr Chung Wing Kwong Memorial Secondary School.  During his term of office, Dr Law took part in a large number of student exchange activities.  He joined the Court of Lingnan University in 2008 and became both Chairman of the Court and member of the Council three years later, making important contributions to the University’s development and governance.

 

Dr Law helps people in need by fostering community engagement and has taken up a number of positions and tasks of the Lions Clubs International.  He held a number of public service positions including the Central and Western District Commercial Affairs Committee (1982-1985), Adjudicator of the Obscene Articles Tribunal (1987-1990), and Member of Works Working Group of the Chinese Temples Committee (2010-2016).

Dr Law will be awarded the degree of Doctor of Social Sciences, honoris causa by Lingnan University.

 

Professor Simon Marginson   Prof Simon Marginson

Prof Simon Marginson is the Professor of International Higher Education and Director of the Centre for Global Higher Education at the University College London (UCL), and is one of the leading scholars in the world in the field of higher education studies.  He has published research work in the topic areas of higher education and globalisation, higher education and social inequality, and international and comparative higher education.  Moving between conceptual inquiry and qualitative research based on observation, he seeks to better elucidate higher education and thus to lead to better policy and practice.

 

As Director of the Centre for Global Higher Education, Prof Marginson spearheads 16 initial research projects in collaboration with about 40 scholars at five UK and eight international partner universities (including Lingnan University).  He has written, co-authored and edited 25 books as well as over 350 journal articles, review essays and book chapters, and is one of the most cited researchers in the field.  He draws on and integrates a wide spectrum of social science disciplines in his work, ranging from political economy and sociology, social and cultural theory, to history and political philosophy.

 

Prof Marginson has received multiple honours and awards in the course of his outstanding academic career.  In 2014 he was the Clark Kerr Lecturer on Higher Education at the University of California at Berkeley, and he won the Distinguished Research Award from the Association for Studies of Higher Education in the US in the same year.  He is a member of Academia Europaea, a Lifetime Fellow of the Society for Research into Higher Education in the UK, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences Australia.  As an expert in comparative education, he has been a visiting professor at institutions of higher learning in Japan and Russia.

 

Prof Marginson will be awarded the degree of Doctor of Social Sciences honoris causa by Lingnan University.

 

Professor Wang Gungwu, CBE, BBM, PBM Prof Wang Gungwu

For six decades, Prof Wang Gungwu has been a devoted scholar and researcher, teacher and educator, as well as a servant of the public.  He is an eminent historian in modern Chinese history and an international authority on the history of the overseas Chinese.

 

Prof Wang served as Vice Chancellor of The University of Hong Kong from 1986 to 1995. He led HKU to establish The University of Hong Kong Foundation for Educational Development & Research in order to foster stronger links with the community and to enhance the institution’s capacity for teaching and research.  He himself acted as a model of a socially engaged intellectual leader in Hong Kong: he served as Chairman of the Council for Performing Arts and Chairman of the Environmental Pollution Consultative Committee, and accepted an appointment as a member of the Executive Council of the then colonial Government in 1989.  Upon his retirement from HKU, Prof Wang moved to the National University of Singapore (NUS), where he served, among other academic and leadership posts, as Chairman of the Governing Board of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy until 2017.  Prof Wang has been named a University Professor at NUS since 2007, and is currently Chairman of the Management Board of its East Asian Institute and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

 

Prof Wang received multiple honours and awards in the course of his illustrious career.  He was conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws by Monash University, Melbourne, the Australian National University, the University of Melbourne, and Wawasan Open University, Penang; and an honorary Doctor of Letters (D Litt) by the University of Sydney, the University of Hull, The University of Hong Kong, The Open University of Hong Kong, and the University of Cambridge.  Prof Wang is an Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University as well.  He is a former President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities; a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences; an honorary member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as well as an Academician of the Academia Sinica, Taiwan.  For his outstanding research achievements in the history of China and Southeast Asia, he won the Academic Prize of the Asian Culture Prizes established by the Japanese city of Fukuoka in 1994.

 

Prof Wang will be awarded the degree of Doctor of Humanities honoris causa by Lingnan University.