New faces, new goals for latest Court meeting

The 11th meeting of the Court was held on 1 December 2016. This was the first meeting chaired by the new Pro-Chancellor, Dr Chung Shui-ming.

“I am no stranger to CityU. As you know I have been around for some time,” he said. “I have worn many hats over the past few years, as Council Chairman, Treasurer, a Council member, a Court member and as an Honorary Graduate.”

He said he was pleased that CityU was not only rising up in world university rankings but also that it was maintaining its quality against a great deal of equally high quality competitions.  

“These achievements have been made possible thanks to the support of Council members, members of senior management, faculty, alumni, students, and of course, thanks to the support of you, our Court members,” he said.

He gave a vote of thanks to those Court members whose terms of office would expire by the end of December 2016. 

The Council Chairman, Mr Herman Hu Shao-ming, gave a report from the Council on the latest developments of CityU and the work of the Council. He touched on follow-ups to the Sports Hall incident, university governance, the Council retreat, knowledge transfer and the re-appointment of the CityU President, Professor Way Kuo.

“I am glad that the University can continue to benefit from the capable leadership of Professor Kuo and his strong commitment to CityU. I am confident that Professor Kuo and his excellent management team can take CityU to new heights in the coming years,” he said.

Mr Hu also drew attention to the success of CityU in world university rankings, its research strengths, the student achievements, both in and out of the classroom, and the overall development of the School of Veterinary Medicine.

“Not only have we set up scholarships for gifted secondary school students interested in a veterinary-related career, we will be launching the new undergraduate degree in veterinary medicine next year, having recently acquired one of Hong Kong’s most prestigious clinics for animal welfare and care,” he said.

Professor Kuo began his talk by welcoming Professor Alex Jen, CityU’s new Provost. He said that Professor Jen was a highly respected academic with a vast amount of experience in higher education administration and research.

Professor Kuo paid particular attention to the quality of CityU graduates and their career opportunities. “We have learned that students who have recently entered into the job market after finishing their degrees are commanding higher salary increments than students from some of the other universities in Hong Kong,” he said.

In addition, he said, CityU was ranked 138th in the Global University Employability Ranking 2016, an annual survey conducted by the French consulting group Emerging and the German research institute Trendence.

“In fact, CityU is one of four universities in Hong Kong that has broken into top 150 in this survey,” he said.

Professor Kuo went on to talk about CityU’s ranking performance, pointing out that we are ranked in the top 3 in Hong Kong, according to some metrics, and that without a doubt CityU was one of the most rapidly improving universities in the world.

Professor Lu Jian, Vice-President (Research and Technology), brought the meeting to a close with an overview of CityU’s recent achievements in research, providing Court members with insight into how and why CityU had performed so well in world rankings.