Arts A new book looked at the moral trajectory and consequences of China’s reform in recent decades, and also offered a more general philosophical investigation of freedom and moral subjectivity. Architecture Focusing on the United States and China, scholars demonstrated that large potential synergies exist between pollution and carbon emissions control and thus their improved coordination could lead to a substantial reduction of unnecessary policy-compliance costs. Business and Economics The effect of stressful work demands on employee job performance was explored through a new approach that looked at the roles played by organisational justice and leadership in the stress process. Dentistry Dental researchers successfully regenerated enamel crystal in in vitro conditions, offering a promising approach for managing enamel loss. Education The potential and pitfalls of different educational approaches to cultural diversity were explored in a book that looks at the challenges faced in the American education system regarding Muslims and Islam following the 9/11 attacks. Engineering For the first time, an active matrix organic transistor array was fabricated on regular printing paper for information display purposes – thus contributing to the development of green electronics and demonstrating the feasibility of other novel applications using printing paper, such as smart sensors or solar cells. Law The first monographic work on the legal history of Republican Beijing (1910s–1930s), which describes the practice of law during a period of social transformation, was produced through unprecedented research using archived records and other primary materials. Medicine The rapid closure of live poultry markets in Mainland China in spring 2013, following the appearance of influenza A (H7N9), was found to have almost eliminated the risk of human infections of the virus. However, other policy strategies will be needed given consumers’ preference for live poultry. Science Earth scientists showed that major shifts in relative sea level in the Galapagos archipelago over the past half-million years reconfigured its geography and created periodic land bridges that allowed animal populations to access newly exposed terrain and in some cases reconfigure their gene pools. Social Sciences A new book argued that the gap between Confucian political ideals and modern-day society could be tackled by adopting liberal democratic institutions shaped by the Confucian concept of the good rather than the liberal concept of the right. This perfectionist approach to politics judges the social and political order by the contribution to human well-being.

Examples of Our Research

HKU researchers are productive across a broad range of fields. The most recent figures show they had 5,833 peer-reviewed referred publications in 2014-15, averaging about 3.6 publications per academic staff member. The University honoured the best of th best in May 2016 with the Research Output Prize, which recognises a single piece of outstanding research in each faculty in the previous year. The results offer a sample of the breadth and depth of research at HKU:

 

Talent Development

Nearly 3,000 research postgraduate (RPg) students are enrolled at HKU – a deep pool of talent that the University is cultivating through programmes that not only encourage critical thinking and investigation, but also a can-do ethos in translating their research into impact.

RPg students are offered formal instruction on everything from research integrity (which the University has been a regional leader in promoting) to writing workshops to making presentations at conferences. In 2015–16 we announced that 50 per cent of all RPg students would have an international or Mainland China experience by 2019 and 100 per cent by 2022. This could be a laboratory attachment, short course, industry internship, fieldwork, conference participation or other academic activity. The aim is to broaden horizons and, hopefully, plant seeds for future international collaborations.

Interdisciplinary approaches are also hallmarks of HKU’s RPg programmes. A number of students have made such research the focus of their work, and the Graduate School also offers transdisciplinary workshops that encourage students in single disciplines to think more broadly about the scope and methodology of their research. In 2015–16 the workshops focussed on big data and complex social networks.

Xu Xinyi, an MPhil candidate in the School of Nursing, used an HKU interdisciplinary workshop on social networks to enrich her knowledge.

Xu Xinyi, an MPhil candidate in the School of Nursing, attended the social network session and gained insights for her own research after competing in a workshop poster competition alongside Jiang Zhihang, an MPhil candidate in Law, and Huang Biyun, a PhD candidate in Education. “My research is on diabetic patients’ health promotion, so we combined social networks with health promotion and diabetes prevention. I learned a lot of things, such as how to use cost-benefit analysis in health promotion. This workshop was a good chance for me to enrich my knowledge,” she said.

Finally, the Graduate School has been promoting a more entrepreneurial culture through workshops on innovation and start-ups, encouragement to students to participate in HKU’s DreamCatchers initiative (see Knowledge Exchange chapter), and the Internship and Career Expo jointly organised with the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks.



 
 
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