Wing On Lee
Hall of Fame Class of 2022
Within a year of his appointment as professor and executive director of the Institute for Adult Learning (IAL), Singapore, Dr. Wing On Lee was invited by UNESCO to serve as an expert reviewer to the 2019 forum on Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship and to deliver keynote and plenary speeches on educational strategic development and monitoring mechanisms for lifelong learning. This was just one among many distinguished achievements in a career devoted to adult and continuing education. Lee’s leadership of IAL has included championing continuing education research and training for sustaining economic performance through upskilling and shaping employment and policy decisions. IAL also has spearheaded innovations through learning technology, workplace learning, and industry partnerships to heighten adult learning and offer certification programs for trainers of adult learning.
As a scholar, Lee is renowned for his publication record: 40 books, 200 journal articles and book chapters, and more than 150 international keynote speeches. He has contributed articles to the first and second editions of Springer International Handbook of Lifelong Learning and is now co-editing the third edition. Both his publications and keynote addresses consistently link lifelong learning to 21st century and global competencies.
While serving as vice president of the Hong Kong Institute of Education (renamed the Education University of Hong Kong in 2016), he established UNESCO’s International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training in 2008 and the Hong Kong Museum of Education in 2009. In recognition of his contributions to peace education and environmental education, he received the Soka Gakkai International Award from the Hong Kong Association in 2010. In 2014-17, as vice president of the Open University of Hong Kong, he drew on his keen marketing expertise and made and monitored changes to OUHK’s course offerings. These changes helped both secure the financial stability of the university and equip students to become more employable in the changing job market.
Lee’s contributions to the field also were made through service on many strategic committees. These committees include the Education Commission, Quality Education Fund, Curriculum Development Council, and the Hong Kong government’s think-tank, Central Policy Unit. His draft of the concept and curriculum chapters of the Guidelines on Civic Education for Schools (1996) emphasized that every citizen could make a difference and be an active contributor to the society and nation. He served as chairman of the syllabus committee that issued curriculum guidelines on lifelong learning for all subjects. The lifelong learning reform agenda became a cornerstone in transforming Hong Kong into a learning society.
Lee himself is an exemplary lifelong learner. While working as a schoolteacher, he attained his PhD and gained academic renown in the field of comparative education. He founded the Comparative Education Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong in 1994 and facilitated the establishment of the Comparative Education Society of Asia in 1995. He pioneered Hong Kong’s first master’s degree programs in values education and comparative education and, in 2010, was elected president of the UNESCO World Council of Comparative Education Societies. In 2021, he was appointed to the governing board of UNESCO Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding, and to the International Expert Monitoring Project of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) in Germany.
Prominent in the field of citizenship and moral and values education, he founded at the Hong Kong Institute of Education the now-renowned Centre for Citizenship Education; in 2017, at Zhengzhou University, China, he established two strategic research centers.
For his contributions to the Hong Kong education system, Lee received the Medal of Honor from the Hong Kong government in 2003.