The pursuit of excellence is at the heart of our success, but sitting right next to it is a commitment to integrity in our research. How we conduct research, in terms of ethical, safety and related considerations, is essential to the acceptance of the results and therefore the impact of our research. Research integrity is a core value at the University and this message is reinforced to staff and students. We have policies and systems in place for addressing integrity issues and new staff and students must attend a mandatory course on research integrity. A survey in 2013 of those who attended the course found most were very satisfied with their training.

We also want to ensure we have a robust mechanism to deal with delinquencies. In January 2013 the University Council approved refinements to our policy and procedures on research integrity. The previous policy had been drafted in 2003, but in recent years, research integrity and the response to misconduct have become issues of global academic interest. The revised policy ensures HKU meets world standards, as befits a member of the international community of research-intensive universities.

A Fertile Ground for Young Talent

HKU aims to be the institution of choice for students from around the world pursuing a research postgraduate degree. More than half of these students are from outside Hong Kong and they are provided with opportunities to attend overseas conferences and go on overseas exchanges if these can benefit their research. Elite students can also participate in HKU's joint PhD programmes with King's College London, Imperial College London and the University of Toronto.

All research students receive a broad-based education that equips them with transferrable skills, such as communication and presentation skills, that they can apply in their future careers, whether in academia, industry, government or other domains. There are mandatory and optional programmes. The mandatory programmes include research skills, teaching skills and research integrity. An example of an optional programme is the 3MT® competition, which originated in Australia and gives students a chance to crystallise their thesis into a three-minute presentation before a general audience.

Undergraduate research is also nurtured at the University. Individual faculties offer programmes and in 2012-13 the University-wide Undergraduate Research Fellowship Programme was launched. Exceptional students in their final year of study are given an opportunity to do research under the supervision of an HKU academic. They may also undertake a research internship under the supervision of a professor overseas or locally if appropriate. The students have to produce a dissertation or other research deliverable at the end of the programme. Some 56 students were admitted in the first year of the programme.