THE REVIEW2020 MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT AND VICE-CHANCELLOR stay safe, as well as to maintain mental and physical wellbeing. Our students have assisted primary and secondary school students in their studies during school closures, and the University has launched the HKU COVID Relief Fund to help students and community members in need. HKU also wants our fresh graduates to continue to perform well, despite the economic impacts of the pandemic. To help them over this hump, we announced short-term internships for 2020 graduates to gain work experience at HKU. We also offered scholarships if they instead wished to pursue our taught Master’s degree programmes to enhance skills and knowledge in a tough labour market. More than 110 graduates have taken up the latter opportunity. A Stellar Performance Despite the profound challenges this year, we have delivered magnificent achievements in our academic activities. The most prominent example was our COVID-19 research (detailed in the Research and Innovation chapter), but this was only one highlight in a very busy and fruitful year. We continued to perform strongly in the Research Grants Council’s competitive funding programmes, receiving HK$212 million (excluding on-costs) for 265 projects under its General Research Fund – significantly more than in 2019 and the highest amongst institutions in Hong Kong. We also led five of the seven major projects awarded in the Themebased Research Scheme, receiving a total HK$179 million (including on-costs), and participated in a sixth. Some 127 of our scholars were named by Clarivate Analytics as being among the top 1% in their fields in the world in 2020 based on citations by other academics while individual scholars earned various national and international honours. HKU also performed very well in InnoHK, a major, new Hong Kong government funding programme. Top-performing students continued to choose HKU. We admitted three of the five top scorers of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination, two provincial top scorers in Mainland China’s Gaokaoexaminations, 16 top scorers in the global International Baccalaureate exams and 24 top scorers in the GCE A-level exams. Many of these highflyers are non-local students who chose to come to Hong Kong. Altogether, more than 700 students of 38 nationalities from Mainland China and overseas picked HKU. Talent Acquisition The dust has not settled on the turmoil of the past year and challenges remain – the global pandemic, political polarisation in Hong Kong, and uncertain geopolitics which threaten to affect research and recruitment. The implications for the University are clear: we must continue to innovate and stay nimble, and press ahead with our ambitions to advance HKU. Academic excellence is the key to the University’s value to society. Our future depends on it. HKU has done very well among the best universities in Asia, but we need to engage in deep thinking and reform if we are to be truly world leading. The University is more than a century old and there are areas where we could be more efficient and effective. We need to go beyond our comfort zones and get ahead of the curve to lead change. To this end, and to inject new energy and continuously enhance standards on campus, we are actively recruiting 100 of the world’s best scholars, at all ranks and fields, through the HKU Global Professoriate Recruitment Campaign. At the same time, we are continuing our efforts to cultivate homegrown talent through recruitment of strong PhD candidates. Fresh voices and ideas will help stimulate everyone in the HKU community to gear their strengths to the maximum. Reinvigorating Facilities We are also in the process of expanding and upgrading our physical space to accommodate more people and more kinds of research. The Pokfield Campus development received green light in 2020 and will link HKU to Kennedy Town. Work is well underway to expand the Medical Campus on Sassoon Road, while the Tech Landmark, which will focus on interdisciplinary research, is also moving forward. These modern facilities should start to reach completion within the next five years. One point that must be emphasised in light of political developments, including the new National Security Law, in Hong Kong over the past year is that academic freedom continues to be alive and kicking at HKU. Although the implications of that law to academia remain unclear, we have held workshops led by the Faculty of Law to deepen our understanding on the subject. HKU remains fervently committed to academic freedom, while at the same time acknowledging that we must work within the law. We will continue to explore and discover, all for our academic excellence and contribution to knowledge generation and humanity. This is how I look at our future: we have to walk with two legs, one to deal with the usual societal challenges, the other to pursue and provide the best education and scholarship to help drive HKU and Hong Kong forward. The circumstances of the past year have brought us to a crossroads, a turning point, and opened up the scope for reform which promises to propel us to new heights. HKU has the capabilities to ramp up its intellectual dynamism to spark new ideas and collaborations across new and emerging fields. The more we succeed, the better we can serve society. The current Pokfield Road site will be redeveloped into a new landmark campus hub with academic, cultural and sports facilities. Professor Zhang interacting with students in the Tam Wing Fan Innovation Wing. Professor Zhang delivering a speech at the Inauguration Ceremony for New Students. Professor Xiang Zhang President and Vice-Chancellor December 2020 04 | 05
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