The University of Hong Kong has had another remarkable year when, despite dodging slings and arrows, it continued to make a positive impact in the world and attract superbly talented students and staff. As the outgoing President, I take great pride in the simple fact that HKU remains an excellent university and some of the best minds in the world are keen to be part of it.

The numbers attest to our excellence. In 2017, we attracted more than two-thirds of the top scorers in Hong Kong’s DSE (5** in five or more subjects), not to mention thousands of applications from excellent candidates in Mainland China and overseas. In research, we are leading three new Areas of Excellence and Theme-based Research Scheme projects awarded in 2017 (making HKU the co-ordinator of 25 of the 56 projects awarded to date under these two schemes), and we also received our largest donation ever of $1.244 billion from the Hong Kong Jockey Club to fund new research and clinical facilities at Grantham Hospital. Some 118 of our scientists are ranked among the top one per cent in their fields based on citations of their publications – a remarkable figure when you consider our total professoriate staff is just over 1,100, including a substantial proportion who are not scientists.

Internationally, HKU is highly regarded in the league tables. Whilst I always caution that we must not be driven by rankings, I take some encouragement from the fact that our position is rising in all three major tables – the Times Higher, QS and Shanghai Jiaotong – and that we sit comfortably alongside the world’s leading universities. Notably, in 2017 Times Higher ranked us the most international comprehensive university in the world.

All of this is wonderful news. At the same time, HKU faces challenges, not least the need to stay competitive. Last year my senior management team and I put forward a strategic vision for meeting that goal, under the title ‘Asia’s Global University’. Our formula is to elevate and enhance internationalisation, interdisciplinarity and innovation on campus, which all converge on creating impact. Any new vision takes time to be realised – a decade is a reasonable timeframe. But already, we have made heartening progress.

Implementing Our Vision

On internationalisation, we are edging closer to our goal of ensuring every undergraduate student will have opportunities for an international and Mainland China experience by 2022. In 2016–17 alone, more than 9,000 HKU students went abroad for exchanges or other visits. We also have formal collaborations at the institutional level with the University of Sydney, University of Chicago, King’s College London and University College London (UCL), as well as research collaborations on specific issues, such as an agreement with the US National Academy of Science in 2017 to work together on global health issues. In terms of engagement on the Mainland, we have adjusted our human resources policy to make it easier for staff to pursue funding, research and clinical opportunities there. We are also increasing our presence on the Mainland through the HKU-Shenzhen Hospital, the Shanghai Study Centre, the HKU-Zhejiang Institute of Research and Innovation.

Our interdisciplinary ambitions in education are exemplified in the innovative Common Core, which is being strengthened with the introduction in the past two years of transdisciplinary minors and clusters and international collaborations. Dual degree options both at HKU and with non-local partners (including UCL in undergraduate Law; Arts and Social Sciences degrees with Sciences Po; joint Masters with University of Southern California) broaden student exposure, as do new articulated programme arrangements between our Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences and physiotherapy and veterinary programmes at the University of Sydney and University of Edinburgh. In research, our Strategic Research Themes initiative evolved into the Seed Funding for Strategic Interdisciplinary Research Scheme in 2016–17, which will groom large-scale research projects that are eligible for major funding opportunities.

An innovation mindset is also being cultivated on campus, with technology being a major driver. Online learning is opening new horizons and our Technology-Enabled Learning Initiative has been testing its potential, both through Massive Open Online Courses and in courses on campus. In research, new agreements with external partners, such as Cyberport and Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, are providing funding and opportunities for translating our innovations into impact. HKU’s DreamCatchers initiative, which supports the University’s entrepreneurial community, has also opened a new working space for start-ups, the iDendron.

President Peter Mathieson attended the opening of the Equal Opportunity Festival 2017, which HKU hosted from October 27
to November 11.

Streamlining Management and Governance

The supporting backbone of these achievements is the University itself. We are determined to improve the quality and efficiency of our operations in order to make HKU that much more competitive. In 2017 the Smarter@HKU initiative was launched to optimise our professional services and make the most efficient use of resources, with resultant savings to be allocated to academic activities. All areas of work are being targeted, with the proviso that there will be no compulsory staff redundancies. The effectiveness of our governance was also addressed through the Report of the Review Panel on University Governance, which was submitted to the Council in 2017. It contains a great deal of common sense and we are already implementing many of the recommendations.

Finally, we have continued to modernise our staff management. Family-friendly practices have been introduced, such as breastfeeding facilities on campus and new measures for recognising part-time work; gender equity is being promoted, for example through balanced gender representation on decision-making committees; and we have more objective assessments of performance. These measures have all been implemented recently and I believe they will make the University a better place to work for years to come.

HKU sports scholars met with President Peter Mathieson in August, before heading to Taipei’s Summer Universiade 2017 to compete in athletics, swimming, fencing and volleyball.

Challenges are Opportunities

I have long reiterated that challenges can and should be seen as opportunities. The University has operated in a most challenging environment during my tenure, where the politicisation of higher education in Hong Kong has threatened to throw us off the scent of opportunity. This is deeply lamentable because the sector has so much to be proud of – we have more top-ranked universities per head of population than any other city on the planet. HKU has been a particular target of this politicisation, and therein lies our opportunity.

Professor Peter Mathieson

President and Vice-Chancellor

December 2017