The first female student was admitted to HKU in 1921, Rachel Irving, and by 1941 about 20 per cent of undergraduates were women. They were enrolled in all faculties, although with a large concentration in Arts. Post-war, many women graduates played prominent roles in Hong Kong government and society, and also in HKU.

Industrialist Pauline Chan (BA 1940, HonLLD 1985), for instance, became a Court/Council member and benefactor of HKU, while Professor Rosie Young was the first HKU medical graduate to become Dean of the Faculty of Medicine (1983–85).

George Bernard Shaw visited HKU on its 21st anniversary in 1933 and offered students some interesting but inflammatory advice, given the times: "Steep yourselves in all the revolutionary books. Go up to your neck in communism because if you don't begin to be a revolutionist at the age of 20 then at 50 you will be a most impossible old fossil. If you are a red revolutionary at the age of 20 you have some chance of being up to date when you are 40!"

The number of faculties at HKU has grown over the years to meet the professional and infrastructural needs of Hong Kong. Although many of the subjects were taught at HKU from its earliest days, Faculty status provided more solid foundations for expansion and specialization. Some 10 faculties were established over the years: