Students from HKU’s Ricci Hall chat with Professor Zhang. His mentor, Professor Andy Tam, once also lived in these residential halls. President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Xiang Zhang, alongside former Acting President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Tam, at the inauguration ceremony in August to welcome students to the academic year 2018–19. century. International collaboration also features strongly in our research and in 2018 we signed agreements with the University of Toronto and Tsinghua University to co-fund research activities, adding to our strategic partnerships with such institutions as the University of Cambridge, University College London, King’s College, the University of Chicago, Shanghai Jiaotong University and the University of Sydney. In 2017–18 we also had more than 2,400 on-going international research collaborations, which have been shown to multiply the impact of the research for both us and our collaborators as measured by the Field-Weighted Citation Impact. The University also hosted major international summits in 2017–18, such as the 2018 Hong Kong International Artificial Intelligence Summit with Tsinghua University, the Grand Challenges for Engineering Symposium with the US National Academy of Engineering, and the Hong Kong Summit of Global Health Leaders. Our growing engagement with Mainland China also enriches our work. In April 2018, we hosted the C9+1 Symposium for senior managers, teachers and students from nine top research universities in the Mainland plus HKU to share expertise and discuss collaborations in teaching excellence and innovation. This high-level event included keynote addresses by Mrs Lam and China’s Minister of Education, Mr Chen Baosheng. We also learned in 2018 that Hong Kong researchers can now compete directly in the funding programmes of the central government, without needing a Mainland-based partner as we did in the past. This should expand the scale and scope of our research opportunities, although it also means we face more competitors. However, we have many of the ingredients needed to succeed and I will be working to enhance our strengths, particularly through recruitment of new staff. Setting our sights higher The successes of our efforts to provide a world-class education and world-class research has paid off not only in our competition for top students and funding, but in international recognition. Our Dental Faculty is ranked the best in the world by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), while the Education Faculty is ranked seventh best by QS and fourth best by Times Higher Education (THE). The University as a whole is ranked 25th by QS and 36th by THE. These are strong showings but of course, our sights are always set higher. Coming here from abroad, I am keen to bring a fresh perspective on how the University can develop its potential. Since arriving at HKU on July 17, I have met with hundreds of staff, students and alumni. One thing I have instructed my Senior Management Team to do is to drill down deep into the faculties and departments to see where we can make immediate changes to improve people’s working lives. Reducing red tape is low-hanging fruit, but it is an area where I think we can make a positive impact. SMARTER@HKU has improved processes for operational matters, such as estates and administration, and we now want to keep the momentum going in processes related to our academic activities. Recent improvements to human resources procedures, such as streamlining the appointment system to make it more speedy, transparent and effective, are also positive steps in the right direction. I believe these sorts of measures will ultimately help our scholars be more effective and benefit HKU as a whole. At the same time, I am looking at the longer-term future of the University. HKU has the potential to be elevated to a Stanford, Cambridge or Oxford – we have capable scholars, world-class excellence in several academic areas and exceptional students, plus strong support from the Hong Kong community. To get to the next level, we need to recruit even more top scholars from around the world and this will be my priority going forward. The bar is set high, but it is time to raise it higher. Gratitude and appreciation HKU’s many recent achievements have been the result of groundwork laid by my predecessors, Professor Paul Tam who was Acting President and Vice-Chancellor from January until my arrival in July, and Professor Peter Mathieson, who led the University from 2014 to January 2018. On behalf of the University, I extend our warmest thanks and appreciation for their hard work and dedication to making HKU a university of tremendous potential. I am excited to be taking up the mantle as President and driving the University forward in this era of so many opportunities, and I pledge to work hard in the coming years to see it reach the fullness of its potential. Professor Xiang Zhang President and Vice-Chancellor December 2018 ︱5 4︱ MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT AND VICE-CHANCELLOR Anthony Fan
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