Professor Cheng Kai-ming is Professor Emeritus at the University of Hong Kong. He was Chair Professor of Education, Dean of Education, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, and Senior Advisor to the Vice-Chancellor of the University. Professor Cheng is now Director of Education Policy Unit at the Faculty of Education. He taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education as Visiting Professor 1996-2007.

Trained as a mathematician, Professor Cheng was a school teacher and a principal before he pursued doctoral study at the London Institute of Education. He has been involved in institutional evaluation and accreditation, policy discussion, and training in higher education in various jurisdictions. Professor Cheng participated in the institutional evaluation of Peking University, Beijing Normal University, Nankai University, Xiamen University, and Shantou University. Among others, he lectures at the National Academy of Education Administration, China, and SKOLKOVO, Russia. He created the Summer Institute on higher education at HKU.

Professor Cheng’s current attention is on the fundamental changes in society and their challenges to education, and the attention to learning as the core business of education. He was founding convenor of the Strategic Research Theme on Learning Science which is a cross-disciplinary network with over 60 members across HKU. Professor Cheng has been a consultant with the World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNDP, and the Asian Development Bank.

He has also been involved in discussions about education reforms in the US. Currently, he is a member of the National Advisory Committee on Curriculum Reform in China. Locally, Professor Cheng is a member of the Education Commission and was instrumental in the comprehensive reform which started in 1999. He chaired the Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications 2002-2008, and was Chairman of the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (2009-15). He also chairs the Hong Kong Regional Advisory Committee for PISA 2015.

Professor Cheng writes a column for the Hong Kong Economic Journal Daily, Shanghai Education, and Escuela (Spain).