Stephen Chan

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Biographical Abstracts

Stephen Chan has focused his teaching, research, and practice on academic, cross-cultural, and technology-driven service learning and community engagement.

Dr. Chan holds doctorate and bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Rochester, and a master’s from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Following his studies, Chan embarked on a research career in Canada, working at the National Research Council in Ottawa. In 1993, he returned to Hong Kong to join the Department of Computing at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). Here, while teaching information technology subjects, he gradually moved deeper into service-learning.

In 2011, he set up the Office of Service-Learning at PolyU, where he served as founding director until 2020. The office championed the implementation of a compulsory, credit-bearing academic service-learning program for all undergraduate students. In 2024-25, the program offered 70+ service-learning courses to 4,500 undergraduates annually, with 1,000 students serving in mainland China, 1,000 in foreign countries, and others serving in Hong Kong.

Chan has set up and led 20+ service-learning projects in mainland China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Philippines, Rwanda, Tanzania, and South Africa. As a board director at the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement, he initiated the Asia-Pacific Community of Practice, working to build up the regional group and to connect it with the global community. Chan is a consultant at PolyU’s Service-Learning and Leadership Office.

Areas of Expertise

• Service-learning
• Internationalisation and cross-cultural service-learning
• Technology-facilitated service-learning
• Service-learning as mass education