"Director of English Language Centre"

English Language Centre

Director of English Language Centre (Ref. 250912007-IE)

The English Language Centre (ELC), with a strong commitment to quality learning and teaching, aims to enhance students’ communication skills, foster students’ independent, life-long English language learning and whole-person development. ELC has been housed under the new Language Education Institute since 1 July 2025 as one of its constituent units.

ELC is mainly responsible for offering English subjects for Language and Communication Requirements which are mandatory to all undergraduate students of the University, Discipline-Specific Requirements subjects tailor-made for more than 20 professional fields of the University’s programmes, and numerous electives designed to enhance students’ communicative competencies. The Centre currently has around 80 teaching staff members, and about 25 technical, research and administrative personnel. Please visit the Centre’s website at https://www.polyu.edu.hk/elc/ for more information.

In the light of transformational development of digital learning platforms and technological tools in today’s language education, we are looking for a Director of English Language Centre who possesses the knowledge and/or expertise in technology-enhanced pedagogies to steer the Centre towards this direction in alignment with the strategic goals of the University. The successful candidate will be appointed Associate Professor/Professor/Senior Teaching Fellow/Principal Teaching Fellow commensurate with his/her qualifications and experience and will hold a concurrent directorship appointment, which is normally for a maximum of three-year term of office on a renewable basis. Other suitable candidate(s) from the search, if deemed appropriate by the University, may be appointed senior academic/teaching position(s) if not Director of the Centre.

Job Functions

The position calls for a visionary leader with responsibilities of ensuring the smooth and successful operation and development of the Centre. Reporting directly to the Director of Language Education Institute, the appointee will be required to:

• provide effective leadership in the strategic development and plans of the Centre, in alignment with the University’s Strategic Plan, and provide leadership, coaching and support to all staff members in the Centre in pursuit of planned objectives in a high-quality and cost-effective manner;
• take a leading role in the Centre’s curriculum-design and pedagogical functions, and other academic and scholarly initiatives, including promotion of pedagogic innovations in relation to English language education (including technology-enhanced pedagogies), scholarly investigation of educational needs of students, etc.;
• oversee and manage all businesses of the Centre including the delivery of subjects that it offers;
• ensure optimal deployment of human, financial and other resources in the Centre;
• represent the Centre to liaise with the Centre’s stakeholders for the planning and delivery of the Centre’s educational missions;
• ensure the quality and relevance of the Centre’s teaching activities with the aim of enhancing students’ communication skills;
• develop and lead initiatives that enable and encourage the sharing and promotion of good teaching practice; and
• undertake other duties as assigned by the Director of Language Education Institute or the Central Management Team of the University from time to time.

Qualifications

Applicants should have:

• a PhD or a professional doctorate in Applied Linguistics, Educational Research, Language Education or a related field;
• substantial years of relevant post-qualification experience in a senior academic/teaching position in higher education;
• proven administrative and management capabilities, excellent leadership, interpersonal, communication and team-building skills;
• a proven track record in leading innovation in education, particularly with knowledge of and/or expertise in technology-enhanced pedagogies;
• a proven track record in teaching excellence that creates deep and lasting impact on student learning and development;
• outstanding contribution to programme development leading to substantial enhancement in the quality of educational provision; and
• a proven track record in scholarship of teaching and learning as evidenced by teaching development grants or other funding obtained related to teaching and learning projects, and impactful scholarly works or publications in educational research.

Preference will be given to those with good knowledge of the higher education environment in Hong Kong.

Conditions of Service

Terms of appointment and remuneration package are negotiable and highly competitive.

Application and Nomination

The University invites applications and nominations for this appointment. Please submit an application through PolyU’s career website (https://jobs.polyu.edu.hk/deans_heads). Candidature may also be recommended by nominations via email to the Chairman of the Search Committee for recruitment of Director of English Language Centre at hrscelc@polyu.edu.hk. Consideration of applications and nominations will commence on 15 October 2025 until the position is filled. General information about the University is available at https://www.polyu.edu.hk or from the Human Resources Office [Tel: (852) 2766 5291]. The University’s Personal Information Collection Statement for recruitment can be found at https://www.polyu.edu.hk/hro/careers/pics_for_recruitment.