"Languages, Media and Communication" was identified as one of the eight strategic research areas of the University of Hong Kong in 2005. The Constituent Theme Funding of "Language in Education and Assessment" aims at achieving the HKU vision of promoting interdisciplinary research collaboration across the university. It is co-hosted by the Faculties of Arts and Education in collaboration with the English Centre.

A public forum was held on 23 Feb 2006 to discuss the strategic theme and funding guidelines with interested staff members and research students. Around 70 staff members and research students attended from the Faculties of Arts, Education and Medicine, English Centre, Language Centre, Centre of Asian Studies and Centre for the Advancement of University Teaching. A number of staff members from the Faculties of Social Sciences and Law have also indicated interests in developing research collaboration.

In the forum, participants took advantage of the opportunity to discuss their research as well as the potential for collaboration and how such collaboration could be supported with funding. It is anticipated that more cross-disciplinary activities on "Languages, Media and Communication" will be carried out with small-scale funding of international visitors, publications and conferences/ research networking. These activities will result in a number of referred publications and grant applications to external bodies.

The Constituent Theme Working Party has also supported and assisted the development of a number of RGC applications in 2006-07 and other activities of research centres such as The Hong Kong Putonghua Education and Assessment Centre (HKPEAC) and The Centre for Advancement of Chinese Language Education and Research (CACLER).