Besides enhancing recruit training with academic input to improve RPCs' understanding of policing, the OUHK also awards them a Certificate in Law Enforcement and Security Management, worth 30 credits, after they have completed their training. The certificate provides RPCs with a pathway to university-level studies, and the collaborative arrangement for RPC foundation training has been found satisfactory, with favourable feedback from RPCs.

Further professionalisation of police training

A new open tender exercise was conducted to select a suitable university partner for both RPC and PI foundation training in May this year. As a result, the OUHK was again selected and the partnership contract will last for 36 months.

After signing the contract on behalf of the OUHK, Professor Tam Kwok-kan, Dean of School of Arts and Social Sciences, said he was looking forward to the new collaborative arrangement with the Force.

"Since January 2006, each RPC has been awarded a certificate by OUHK and this will continue under the new collaborative arrangement. In addition, the PIs will be granted 50 credits for the OUHK's Bachelor of Social Sciences with Honours in Law Enforcement and Security Management (which requires 160 credits) upon their completion of training. When these PIs have accumulated two years of working experience after passing their Standard II Inspectorate Professional Examinations, they will be further awarded 30 credits by OUHK for this degree, making the total credit entitlement awarded to 80 credits," Prof Tam pointed out.

Signing the contract on behalf of the Police College, College Director Cheuk Chun-yin said he was glad to see the further development of the collaborative partnership between the College and the OUHK. He pointed out that having the PI foundation training accredited by OUHK is a milestone in developing the Police College as a centre of excellence in police training.

"It is a recognition of the professional standards of the Police College that the PIs will be awarded half of the total credits required for a bachelor degree under the new collaborative arrangement.

"The officers concerned may save around $70,000 and three years in pursuing this job-related bachelor degree. This gives them a new avenue to acquire professional knowledge and policing qualifications, and to attain better performance and development," Dr Cheuk added.

It is expected that the PIs joining the Force in November 2008 will be the first intake to benefit from the new collaborative arrangement. The duration of foundation training for RPCs and PIs will remain unchanged, i.e. 27 weeks and 36 weeks respectively. The OUHK will deliver two modules concerning psychology and social studies in policing for RPC and PI foundation training, covering topics of criminal psychology, stress management, conflict management, policing and ethics, police and the media, empathetic listening and community policing. The course emphasises both theory and practice.

Police College instructors and OUHK lecturers will work hand-in-hand to help recruits acquire academic knowledge and practise at work what they have learned.

Police College Director Cheuk Chun-yin with OUHK guests at the contract-signing ceremony