University of Hong Kong

"HKU" redirects here. For the MTR station, see HKU Station. For other uses, see HKU (disambiguation).
The University of Hong Kong
香港大學
HKU Coat of Arms.png
Arms of The University of Hong Kong
Motto Sapientia et Virtus (Latin)
明德格物 (Chinese)
Motto in English
Wisdom and Virtue
Established 30 March 1911
Type Public
Chairman Leong Che-hung Chairman of the Council
Chancellor Leung Chun-ying
President Peter Mathieson
Vice-president
Steven J. Cannon Executive Vice-President (Administration and Finance)
Chow Shew-Ping Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (University Relations)
Paul Tam Kwong Hang Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research)

Ian Holliday Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning)
Provost Roland T. Chin Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor
Vice-Chancellor Peter Mathieson
Academic staff
3,336[1]
Administrative staff
3,664[1]
Students 27,440[2]
Undergraduates 15,560[2]
Postgraduates 11,880[2]
Location Pokfulam, Hong Kong
22°17′03″N 114°08′16″ECoordinates: 22°17′03″N 114°08′16″E
Campus Urban
53.1 hectares (0.531 km2)[3]
Newspaper Sapientia HKU (English);
Undergrad HKUSU (Chinese)
Colours     Dark Green[4]
Mascot Lion
Affiliations ASAIHL, Universitas 21, ACU, JUPAS, AACSB, EQUIS, APRU, UGC, Heads of Universities Committee, Joint Quality Review Committee
Website hku.hk
University of Hong Kong Logo.svg
University of Hong Kong
Traditional Chinese 香港大學
Simplified Chinese 香港大学
[show]Transcriptions
The University of Hong Kong (informally known as HKU or Hong Kong University) is a public research university located in Pokfulam, Hong Kong, founded in 1911 during the British Colonial era. It is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong, originally established to compete with other Great Powers that had opened higher learning institutions in China at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, established in 1887, evolved to be the medical faculty, one of its first three faculties alongside Arts and Engineering. Academic life at the university was disrupted by the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong; however, following the end of the Second World War, the university underwent expansion with the founding of further departments and faculties.[5]

Today, HKU is organised into 10 academic faculties with English as the main language of instruction. It exhibits strength in scholarly research and education of humanities, law, political sciences, and biomedicine, and is the first team in the world which successfully isolated the corona virus, the causative agent of SARS.[6] It is ranked among the top 3 Asian universities by QS and THE (main overall results).[7][8]

Contents  [hide] 
1 History
1.1 Origins
1.2 Move towards Chinese cultural education, and WW2
1.3 1945 to 2001
1.4 2001 to present
2 Campus
2.1 Main building
2.2 Swire building
2.3 Hung Hing Ying Building
2.4 Tang Chi Ngong Building
2.5 Centennial campus
3 Organisation and administration
3.1 Structure of governance
3.2 Shield, motto and coat of arms
3.3 University anthem
4 Academics
4.1 Admission
4.2 Teaching and learning
4.3 Research
4.4 Libraries and museums
4.5 Reputation and rankings
5 Student life
5.1 Demographics
5.2 Halls and colleges
5.3 Student organisations
5.4 Study abroad programme
6 Noted people
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
History[edit]
Origins[edit]

The Main Building in 1912.

Sir Frederick Lugard, Governor of Hong Kong and first Vice-Chancellor (1910–12) of The University of Hong Kong

Bust of Sir Hormusjee Naorojee Mody, located in the Main Building.
The University of Hong Kong was founded in 1911 when Governor Sir Frederick Lugard proposed to establish a university in Hong Kong to compete with the other Great Powers opening universities in China, most notably Prussia, which had just opened Tongji University in Shanghai. The colonial Hong Kongers shared British values and allowed Britain to expand its influence in southern China and consolidate its rule in Hong Kong.[citation needed] Indian businessman Sir Hormusjee Naorojee Mody learned of Lugard's plan and pledged to donate HK$150,000 towards the construction and HK$30,000 towards other costs.[9] The Hong Kong Government and the business sector in southern China, which were both equally eager to learn "secrets of the West's success" (referring to technological advances made since the Industrial Revolution), also gave their support. The government contributed a site at West Point; Swire Group also contributed £40,000 to endow a chair in Engineering, and thousands of dollars in equipment. The aim was partly to bolster its corporate image following the death of a passenger on board one of its ships, Fatshan, and the subsequent unrest stirred by the Self-Government Society.[10] Along with other donors including the British government and companies such as HSBC, Lugard finally had enough to fund the building of the university.

Charles Eliot was appointed its first Vice-Chancellor.[9] As Governor of Hong Kong, Lugard laid the foundation stone of the Main Building on 16 March 1910 and hoped that the university would educate more Chinese people in British "imperial values", as opposed to those of other Western powers.[citation needed] The university was incorporated in Hong Kong as a self-governing body of scholars on 30 March 1911 and had its official opening ceremony on 11 March 1912. The university was founded as an all-male institution. Women students were admitted for the first time only ten years later.[5]

As Lugard felt that the Chinese society at the time was not suited to ideals such as communism, the university originally emulated the University of Manchester in emphasising the sciences over the humanities.[citation needed] It opened with three founding faculties, Arts, Engineering and Medicine.[5][11] The Faculty of Medicine was founded as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese by the London Missionary Society in 1887.[12] Of the College's early alumni, the most renowned was Sun Yat-sen,[5] who led the Chinese Revolution, changed China from an empire to a republic. In December 1916, the university held its first congregation, with 23 graduates and five honorary graduates.

Move towards Chinese cultural education, and WW2[edit]

Main Building in 1946, with visible damage from the Second World War.
After the 1925–26 Canton-Hong Kong strikes, the government moved towards greater integration of Eastern culture, increasing the number of Chinese courses. In 1927, a degree in Chinese was created. Donations from wealthy businessmen Tang Chi Ngong and Fung Ping Shan – for whom campus buildings are named after – triggered an emphasis on Chinese cultural education. In 1937, the Queen Mary Hospital opened and has served as the university's teaching hospital ever since. In 1941, the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong led to the damage of university buildings, and the university closed until 1945.

1945 to 2001[edit]
Following the Second World War, the university reopened and underwent structural developments as post-war reconstruction efforts began in earnest, requiring more investment in law and social sciences. The Faculty of Social Sciences was established in 1967 and the Law Department in 1969. The student population in 1961 was 2,000, four times more than in 1941.

In 1982, the Faculty of Dentistry, based at the Prince Philip Dental Hospital, was established. It remains to this day Hong Kong's only faculty training dental professionals. In 1984, both the School of Architecture and School of Education became fully-fledged faculties, and in the same year a separate Faculty of Law was created. The Faculty of Business and Economics was established in 2001 as the university's tenth and youngest faculty.

After 1989, the Hong Kong government began emphasising local tertiary education, retaining many local students who would have studied abroad in the United Kingdom. In preparation for the 1997 handover, it also greatly increased student places and course variety. Consequently, by 2001 the student population had grown to 14,300 and over one hundred degree courses were available to students.

2001 to present[edit]
The year 2001 marked the 90th Anniversary of HKU. Growing with Hong Kong: HKU and its Graduates – The First 90 Years was published by the Hong Kong University Press in 2002 as an impact study on HKU's graduates in different fields of Hong Kong.

In January 2006, despite protest from some students and various alumni, the Faculty of Medicine was renamed as the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine "as a recognition of the generosity" of Mr. Li Ka Shing and his Foundation, who pledged HK$1 billion in support of the university "general development as well as research and academic activities in medicine".[citation needed]

On 16 August 2011 Communist Party of China Vice Premier Li Keqiang began a three-day visit to promote development between Hong Kong and mainland China.[13][14] The university was locked down and mishandled by the local police force causing the Hong Kong 818 incident.[15] In a statement to the HKU community, the university's 14th Vice-Chancellor, Professor Lap-chee Tsui, admitted that the security arrangements could have been better planned and organised, and apologised to the university's students and alumni for not having been able to prevent the unhappy incident. He assured them that "the University campus belongs to students and teachers, and that it will always remain a place for freedom of expression".[16] On 30 August 2011, the university's Council resolved to set up a panel to review issues arising from the State leader's visit, to improve arrangements and establish policies for future university events that is consistent with its commitment to freedom of expression.

From 2010 to 2012, the university held Centenary Celebrations to mark its 100th anniversary. It also marked the opening of the Centennial Campus located at the western end of the university site in Pokfulam.[17] The University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital (also known as Binhai Hospital), which is operated by the university, also opened in 2011.[18][19]

On April 10, 2015, HKU declared itself as the first university in the world to join HeForShe, a UN initiative urging the male members to achieve more female rights.[20] Also, HKU promises that it will triple the number of female dean-level members by 2020, more than 1 out of 5 HKU deans will be female. [21]

Campus[edit]

Eliot Hall and Meng Wah Complex

The Tsui Building

The Kadoorie Biological Sciences Building and the Pillar of Shame.
The university's main campus covers 160,000 square metres of land on Bonham Road and Pokfulam Road in the Mid-Levels of Hong Kong Island. HKU buildings are some of the few remaining examples of British Colonial architecture in Hong Kong.

The Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine is situated 4.5 km southwest of the main campus, in the Southern District near Sandy Bay and Pokfulam. The medical campus includes Queen Mary Hospital, the William M.W. Mong Building and research facilities. The Faculty of Dentistry is situated in the Prince Philip Dental Hospital, Sai Ying Pun.

The university also operates the Kadoorie Agricultural Research Centre, which occupies 95,000 square metres of land in the New Territories, and the Swire Institute of Marine Science at the southern tip of the d'Aguilar Peninsula on Hong Kong Island.

Main building[edit]

Main Building corridor
Constructed between 1910 and 1912, the Main Building is the university's oldest structure and was sponsored by Sir Hormusjee Naorojee Mody and designed by Architect Messrs Leigh & Orange.[22] It is built in the post-renaissance style with red brick and granite and has two courtyards. The main elevation is articulated by four turrets with a central clock tower (a gift from Sir Paul Chater in 1930). The two courtyards were added in the south in 1952 and one floor in the end block in 1958. The building was originally used as classrooms and laboratories for the Faculty of Medicine and Engineering and was later the home of departments within the Faculty of Arts. The central Great Hall (Loke Yew Hall) is named after Loke Yew, a benefactor of the university in its early years. It became a declared monument in 1984.[23]

Swire building[edit]
In around 1980, the Swire Group sponsored the building of a new residential hall in the eastern end of the campus. Because of the sponsorship, the new student residence was named Swire Building. The building was officially opened by Mr. John Anthony Swire, C.B.E. on 11 November 1980. In 1983, the colour orange was chosen to be the hall colour in the second Annual General Meeting since the colour was used as the background colour during the first open day of Swire Hall and no other halls using orange as their hall colour.

In 1983, Mrs. J. Lau (Director of Centre Media Resources) provided a design of a hall logo. The Swire Hall Students' Association, HKUSU, then made some amendments to that design. The logo shows the words 'S' and 'H', which is the abbreviation of Swire Hall. The design of the word 'S' looks like two hands holding together, signifying that all hall-mates should co-operate with each others, and promotes the hall motto 'Unity and Sincerity'.

Hung Hing Ying Building[edit]
Financed by Sir Paul Chater, Professor G. P. Jordan and others, it was opened in 1919 by the Governor of Hong Kong Sir Reginald Stubbs and housed the students' union. After World War II, the building was used temporarily for administrative purposes. The East Wing was added in 1960. The building was converted into the Senior Common Room in 1974. It was named in honour of Mr Hung Hing Ying in 1986 for his family's donations to the university. The building was subsequently used again for administrative purposes, and now houses the Department of Music. The two-storey Edwardian style structure is characterised by a central dome and the use of red brick to emulate the Main Building opposite. The building became a declared monument in 1995.

Tang Chi Ngong Building[edit]
The idea to establish a school of Chinese was proposed in the inter-war period. Construction of the premises began in 1929 following a donation from Tang Chi-ngong, father of the philanthropist Sir Tang Shiu-kin, after whom the building was named. It was opened by Sir William Peel, Governor of Hong Kong, in 1931 and since then further donations have been received for the endowment of teaching Chinese language and literature. The building has been used for other purposes since the 1970s but the name remained unchanged. At present, it houses the Centre of Asian Studies. This three-storey flat-roofed structure is surfaced with Shanghai plaster and became a declared monument in 1995.

Centennial campus[edit]
To provide additional space for students under the new four-year undergraduate curriculum the Centennial Campus was built at the western end of the main campus, which was previously occupied by the Water Supplies Department.[24] The construction of the campus started in late 2009, and was completed in 2012, the first year of the introduction of the new academic structure in Hong Kong. In 2012, the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Social Science moved to the Centennial Campus.

Organisation and administration[edit]
Structure of governance[edit]

HKU SPACE Admiralty Learning Centre
The Council is the governing body of the University, and is responsible for the management of financial and human resources of the University and for the University's future developments. The Council comprises University members (both staff and students) and lay members (i.e. persons who are not employees or students of the University), with a ratio of lay to university members of 2:1 Members are serving on the Council as trustees in their personal capacity. The Court is a large overseeing and legislative body comprising University and lay members, representing the wider interests of the communities served by the University. It has the power to make, repeal and amend statutes. The Senate is the principal academic authority of the University, responsible for all academic matters and welfare of students. Its 50 members are mainly academic staff while there are also student representatives.[25]

The University comprises 10 faculties, namely Faculties of Architecture, Arts, Business & Economics, Dentistry, Education, Engineering, Law, Science, Social Sciences, and Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, alongside a graduate school and a number of non-faculty academic units, which provide various study programmes and courses for students.[26] The medium of instruction in most classes is English.[27]

There are two associate institutions. HKU School of Professional and Continuing Education (SPACE) was established in 1956 as the Department of Extramural Studies and changed its name in 1992.[28] There are three main streams of programmes provided, and they are Higher Diploma Programmes (2-year and 3-year full-time), Pre-Associate Degree (1-year full-time) and Associate Degree (2-year full-time). The other one is Centennial College, a liberal arts college established in 2012.[29] It has provided self-financed 4-year bachelor degree programmes for HKALE, HKDSE and other graduates from September 2012.

Shield, motto and coat of arms[edit]

HKU's shield of arms, granted in 1913

HKU's full coat of arms, granted in 1984
The design of the university's shield of arms was proposed to the College of Arms by the university in October 1912.[30] On 14 May 1913, the shield, along with two mottoes (one in Latin, one in Chinese) were granted by the College of Arms.[30] The field resembles the lions on the coat of arms of England, whereas the book on the shield is a common reference to university's role in learning and knowledge.

The Latin motto Sapientia et Virtus is translated into English as "Wisdom and Virtue". The Chinese motto on the pages of the opened book, written from top to bottom, right to left in accordance with traditional Chinese writing direction, contains two phrases: 明德 (ming tak) and 格物 (kak mat), meaning "illustrious virtue" and "the investigation of things" respectively. The first phrase ming tak makes homage to the opening sentence of classic Confucian Classical Chinese literature the Great Learning, in which the author discusses the three great duties of a ruler: illustrious virtue, the renewal of the people, and repose in the highest good.[30] The second phrase kak mat is a reference to the writing of Confucian scholar Zhu Xi 致知在格物 (lit. exhausting by examination the principles of things and affairs). The phrase occurs in discussion regarding how wise rulers set about cultivating wisdom and virtue. If one desires to rectify their heart, they must first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they must first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.[30]

In 1981, the year of the university's 70th anniversary, an application was made to the College of Arms for a full coat of arms, which was granted in 1984, comprising the original shield and mottoes with the addition of a crest, supporters, a helmet and compartment. The supporters of the coat of arms are a Chinese dragon and a lion representing Britain, indicating the university's aspiration to blend East and West cultures, from the foundation by British people in Hong Kong and the later development of the university's research and studies in both west and east culture and technology, whereas the compartment is an allusion to Hong Kong Island, where the university is located.

University anthem[edit]

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The University Anthem was first performed at the Opening Ceremony of the University held on Monday, 11 March 1912, in front of the then newly completed Main Building. It was performed by the Choir of the St John’s Cathedral, the Chorus of the Philharmonic Society, and the full Military Band of the 1st Battalion, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. The music was composed by Denman Fuller and the Latin verses by Cecil Clementi. The Anthem was used at formal University occasions until the 1930s, but after the war it was largely forgotten, preserved in the archives as an historical curiosity that could be seen but seldom heard.

To celebrate the University's centenary, this 100-year-old anthem has been revived. The music has been reconstructed from the original parts, re-orchestrated and recorded, bringing an old tradition back to life for a new century. The recording of the reconstructed University Anthem was recorded by the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Diocesan Choral Society and HKU Students' Union Choir, conducted by the University Artist Yip Wing-sie. The newly orchestration is done by Dr Chan Hing-yan, Chairperson of the Department of Music.[31][32]

Lyrics in Latin English Translation
Finis hic operum! Domus
Stat potens Academia,


Unde ab occiduis recens

Ampliore flust plagis

Mox doctrina meatu.

Here end our labours!
Strong stand the buildings of the University,


whence modern learning soon will flow

from western land in more ample course.

Fons ubi est sapientia?
Et, Scientia, qua lates?

Pontus has negat in suis

Subditas latebris, negat

Has se Terra tenere.

Where is the fountain of wisdom?
And how, O science, art thou hidden?

The Sea denies that these are concealed

in his hiding-place

and the Earth denies that she contains them.

En! Dei reverentia
Hac scientia! Qui malis

Abstinet, sapit. Hoc diu

Munere assidue valentem

Exercete iuventam!

Lo! The fear of God–that is science!
Whoso abstains from evil, he is wise.
Long and earnestly may ye train
youth's vigour in this duty!

Pandite ostia! Iam Deo
Gratias agimus. Dei

Semper auxilio novum

Splendeat sapientia

Lumen ex Oriente! AMEN

Fling open the gates!
Now we give thanks to God.

By God's grace may the new light of wisdom

ever shine out from the East! AMEN

Academics[edit]
Admission[edit]
Admission to HKU is highly competitive. In 2012, the University has received over 70,946 applications for undergraduate studies, 23,852 of which were from outside the Hong Kong schools' system.[33] For international applicants, the enrolment rate was about 1 student for every 12 applications, compared with 1 out of every 10 applicants for local non-JUPAS admissions.[33][34] According to a survey done by the Education18.com (The Hong Kong Education Net), HKU enrolled students with the best performance in HKDSEE in 2012.[35] Internationally, applicants with 5 A*s in GCE ALE, 75/75 in the Taiwan GSAT, 45/45 in IB, and 16 "Zhuang Yuan (狀元)" (the top public exam scoring students in their province or provincial city in mainland China) also joined HKU