HKMA's Second Response to Recent Media Reports

In response to a misleading report in one of the dailies today, The Hong Kong Management Association (HKMA) hereby makes the following statement:

The HKMA has collaborated with Tarlac State University (TSU) in offering its Doctor of Education major in Educational Management since 2009, and with Bulacan State University (BSU) in offering its Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration since 2005. The HKMA has ceased enrolling new students for these two programmes since February 2014.

These doctoral programmes were offered by TSU and BSU through a collaboration with the HKMA, whereby the HKMA was responsible for, among others, programme promotion; recruitment of students; administrative support; coordination work; and part of the teaching arrangements. Under the Memorandum of Understanding, the HKMA was required to work with the Hong Kong Office of TSU and BSU, which was responsible for, among others, approval of student admissions and exemptions; assessment of course work and dissertation; recommendation of qualified candidates to respective universities for graduation; and maintaining registry of students and graduates. Since the beginning of the collaboration, TSU and BSU advised the HKMA that the Hong Kong Office of TSU and BSU is under the management of the Hong Kong Lifelong Education Organization (Lifelong).

When communicating with prospective students, the HKMA had always maintained total transparency that the two doctoral programmes were offered by TSU and BSU respectively. Although the HKMA was the operator of these two doctoral programmes, the HKMA was not involved in how these two Universities chose to manage their respective Hong Kong Offices.

The HKMA deeply regrets that there were misleading reports in that Daily and reserves all legal rights to seek relief.

Issued on 17 November 2015