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50th Anniversary of the Professional Diploma in Housing Management
Designed for an ideal living environment
The School has pioneered the Certificate in Housing Management programme in the 1960s and ever since developed in tandem with the housing development in Hong Kong, nurturing thousands of experts in housing management profession, therefore contributed to making Hong Kong a better living place.
The golden milestones of 50 years’ cultivation
The tragic fire in Shek Kip Mei squatter area in 1953 was the prelude to the development of public housing in Hong Kong. Since then, the demand for housing management talents has been rising. At that time, there were two ways to become a professional housing manager: go abroad to receive training in the U.K, or take distance learning courses offered by institutes from the U.K., the contents of which did not reflect the local situation in regard to public housing.
In 1968, the first part-time Certificate in Housing Management programme was launched by the Department of Extra-Mural Studies, University of Hong Kong (DEMS, later known as HKU SPACE). Students of the programme included housing assistants, resettlement assistants and officers, as well as the staff of the Hong Kong Housing Society. The first batch of locally-trained housing management experts graduated in 1971. In the following year, the former Governor, Lord MacLehose announced a “Ten-year Housing Programme”, which signified the increasing demand for housing managers.
In 1989, the syllabus of the Certificate in Housing Management programme had all along been approved to be equivalent to that of the professional qualification of the Institute of Housing in the U.K., the programme was then renamed as Diploma in Housing Management. With the surge of private residential properties on the market, the contents of the programme was updated and the coverage was broader, in order to meet with the housing and property development trend in Hong Kong.
The amendment of the Building Management Ordinance in the 1990s; and the passing of Housing Manager Registration Bill Ordinance meant that the responsibilities of housing managers had diversified. For this reason, the programme was retitled as Professional Diploma in Housing Management programme in 2004 in order to stay in line with the professionalisation of housing and property management in Hong Kong.
Lighting up the path for students in Hong Kong
In 2018, since its establishment 50 years ago, the School’s housing management programme has nurtured over 6,000 professional experts. Whether serving in government departments or property management companies, they have achieved great success in the industry and wrote a glorious page in the history of housing and property management in Hong Kong.
As the Property Management Services Authority is now officially set up, housing and property management will be widely acknowledged as a profession. The School will continue to progress, in the hope that we will be building a brighter future for Hong Kong.
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