The Review 2006

The Review 2006 The Review 2006 S USTAINING E XCELLENCE The University has had an impressive year, receiving record levels of funding for research and attracting unprecedented interest in our taught programmes. We set in train preparations to expand the campus, boost our staff numbers, invigorate our curriculum and embrace a higher degree of internationalism into our programmes. These achievements and changes will further advance our international recognition and reaffirm our commitment to academic excellence. In 2005-06 our researchers were given a record $145.7 million in Competitive Earmarked Research Grants, 30 per cent more than any other local tertiary institution and 31 per cent higher than last year. The research produced at this University has local, national and global significance, as you will read in the Breaking New Ground chapter. Our teaching programmes also attracted enormous interest in Hong Kong, the Mainland and overseas. Almost all local students with outstanding results applied to us, together with more than 10,000 Mainland students – double last year’s figure – and more than 7,500 students from overseas and outside the local mainstream school system, up 31 per cent from last year. As part of education reform led by the Hong Kong SAR Government, all tertiary institutions will move to a four-year curriculum by 2012. This change offers a once in a generation opportunity to examine and enhance our education programmes and to advance our research aspirations. The additional year of undergraduate education requires preparation in three major areas. First, we need more space. Under the Centennial Campus Development plans, an area west of the Main Campus has been identified that would enable us to increase teaching and research capacity by 50 per cent. In 2006 we selected a master plan proposal from Wong & Ouyang (HK) Ltd/Sasaki Associates following wide-ranging consultations with stakeholders, as described in the Growing with the Times chapter. It is our intention to continue to approach campus development with a high degree of openness and transparency. The second requirement is staff. In 2005-06 we launched the Centenary Recruitment Plan, under which 120 additional academic staff are to be appointed in the next three years aiming for 200 to be in post by 2012. While universities around the world are in competition for a restricted number of gifted academics, I believe our research excellence, quality student intake, working relationship with the Mainland and use of English as the medium of instruction will make us an attractive base for talented scholars. Although there will be transitional issues, particularly in respect of space, we are well positioned to resolve these. The fundamental strength of all world class universities is their staff. As the global pool of gifted academic staff is limited we must retain and attract the best talent. To provide our teachers and researchers with an exciting and challenging supportive setting we identified the need to invigorate