Dr. Patrick Hak-chung LAM
Chief Principal
B.A, PGDE (Distinction, CUHK), M.Sc. (Distinction, HKU), Doctor of Education (HKU)
32 years in education (18 years school principalship); university visiting professor, part-time lecturer & consultant; senior officers in Hong Kong and New Zealand governments; international collaborators across 7 continents.
Dr. Patrick Lam, our Chief Principal, was raised in a blessed Christian missionary family. As a reflective practitioner, he has been a school teacher (both local and IB curricula) and principal in primary and secondary schools for over 3 decades. He spent his first 9 years of service in senior forms of 2 secondary schools before migrating to New Zealand as a Project Manager of External School Review in the Ministry of Education, New Zealand.
Dr. Lam was invited back to Hong Kong in 2002 as the founding Vice Principal of HKUGA Primary School and prepared for the establishment of HKUGA College, subsequently becoming a government-funded school principal in 2007. Dr. Lam had been the Associate Director of Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education (established by the Legislative Council in 2008) for 6 years who specialised in students’ affective development, career and life planning, teacher professional development and parent support for gifted education in the territory. He also served in the senior management of various Y1-12 through-train local and IB schools.
In addition to the services in various committees and task forces in the Education Bureau and various government committees, as well as being the honorary director and consultant of various charity organisations, Dr. Lam has been a part-time lecturer at CUHK and HKBU, guest lecturer at HKU, advisor at EDUHK as well as an invited speaker for over 500 seminars and workshops in Hong Kong and more than 20 countries. He has contributed over 40 articles to international journals, international conferences and proceedings in order to share his educational philosophy and practices.
He has been a learning experience designer and instructor of many stimulating gifted education programmes across 7 continents, including numerous Arctic and Antarctica expeditions, first-ever satellite and first-ever propellant rocket produced by Hong Kong students, aerospace engineering study tours, afforestation in Inner Mongolian desert, African service trip, to name but a few. After he has pioneered a number of international collaboration projects for schools with the professional and financial support provided by HKU and EDB since 2004, he established a vigorous international collaboration system for student learning and teacher professional development at schools.
After receiving the Master of Science (Distinction) and Doctor of Education degrees from the University of Hong Kong (QS ranked No.1 in Asia 2025), he continues to acquire the deep meaning of education and effective school strategies to nurture our future leaders.
Current community services:
– Visiting Professor, North-Eastern Federal University, Russia
– Part-time Lecturer, Faculty of Education, CUHK (PGDE, M.Ed)
– Part-time Lecturer, SCE, HKBU (Principal Certificate Course)
– International Project Advisor, ISNIE, EDUHK
– Elected Hong Kong, China Delegate, Asia-Pacific Federation on Giftedness
– Founding Chairman, Hong Kong Professional Association for the Gifted and
Talented
– Committee Member, Advisory Committee of New Territories Regional Advisory
Committee, Hospital Authority, Hong Kong
– Board of Directors member, Watoto (Asia), Charity for Uganda, Africa
– Vice Chairman, Nam O (Guangdong) Association