The Review 2016

Reaching for New Heights The past decade at the University has been a time of unprecedented expansion of physical space, programmes and people. This has energised the campus and laid a foundation for growth so that now, with the first cohort of the four-year curriculum graduating in 2016, we are ready to move decisively to bring the potential of HKU to full fruition. HKU already has a lot to be proud of – our Faculty of Dentistry, for instance, is number one in the world, and several other faculties are leaders in Asia – but we cannot afford to be complacent. Universities compete globally for staff and students and the competition is getting ever more fierce. The senior management team has reflected on the University’s prospects and we are all agreed that we will need to run to keep up, breaking into an all-out sprint if we wish to advance HKU’s standing even higher. If we are not focussed on continual modernisation and improvement, then we will be left behind. Of course we want to sprint. HKU is a great university and easily one of the best in Asia. Our commitment to excellence is evident in the pages of this Review. But while the University is very well known in Asia, it is less known outside the region. Our overarching goal, then, is to make HKU a significant university on the world stage. Much of the past year has been spent developing our vision for achieving this, which we published in the document Asia’s Global University, The Next Decade: Our Vision for 2016–2025 . Our aim is to combine academic excellence with a global perspective and meaningful collaborations with premier universities and industrial and charitable partners, and direct our efforts towards tackling issues of importance to Asia and the world. In addition, the Belt and Road Initiative for the future of China’s relationship with the rest of the world provides significant opportunities to help us develop our ambitions. The scaffold for fulfilling our vision is called the ‘3+1 Is’ – internationalisation, innovation and interdisciplinarity, all converging on impact – which draws on our strengths (internationalisation and interdisciplinarity) and gives a sharper focus to innovation, which is receiving increasing attention both in Hong Kong and HKU. In 2015–16, we began to implement the framework’s goals in all areas of our work, including teaching and learning, research and knowledge exchange. Future editions of the Review will no doubt report ever more achievements in relation to the 3+1 Is, and progress towards our global ambitions. Measures of Success One of the challenges in setting out a new vision is how to measure our success. In a globalising world that is increasingly dominated by new technologies, there are no clear answers. We have to “feel the stones” so to speak – to find new paths and new ways of showing impact that may not have been measured before or even properly conceived. Nonetheless, there are some existing measures that offered clear indications of the quality of HKU’s work in 2015–16. 03 Message from the President and Vice-Chancellor