The University of Hong Kong is the territory's oldest university, and with a history that stretches back nearly 100 years, it has grown with and helped shape the city from which it takes its name.
Today, HKU, as it is fondly called, is a dynamic, comprehensive, university of world-class standing. With ten Faculties and numerous research centres, its reputation as a centre of intellectual excellence is recognised around the world. It continues to build on its strengths with innovative research and teaching, producing well-rounded graduates with outstanding leadership qualities.
Background
The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is Hong Kong's first and foremost tertiary institution. It served as an international university for South-East Asia in the early years of the last century, having almost as many Malayan students as Hong Kong students during some decades.
Today, the University has more than 20,500 students from 80 different countries around the world, and 2,250 academic staff.
World-Class Comprehensive Research University
HKU has won a proud reputation as a world-class comprehensive research university. It offers internationally recognized qualifications and it is renowned for its academic and research excellence worldwide. As an English-medium university in China, HKU also offers researchers unique opportunities to bridge cultures and continents, and to explore more on China-related studies. Both taught and research programmes are offered in a wide range of disciplines. There are ten faculties and around 35 independent units that engage in multi-disciplinary teaching and research.
HKU exhibits a friendly, multicultural environment and supports multiple learning opportunities to enrich students' learning experiences. The University recruits excellent academic staff locally and internationally, and about 45% of academic staff are drawn from overseas, mostly from leading universities in the United Kingdom, North America, Australia, and a number of Asian countries.
Fostering a whole-person approach to education, HKU believes that learning about life is just as important for students as academic learning. It particularly encourages contact with the outside world and other cultures through active participation in international exchange and collaborations. It arranges community service abroad and internships abroad, as well as exchanges or visiting student arrangements with leading universities, such as Oxford, Princeton and Berkeley. It has extensive links and collaborations with more than 400 counterparts in the Mainland and around the globe.
The University offers computing and network services 24-hours around-the-clock and its Libraries deploy a full range of modern library and latest digital technologies to make enormous library collections conveniently accessible online. The Language Centre offers courses in various languages for students to improve their language proficiency and the University Health Service provides generally free primary health care and preventive services as well as a subsidized dental service.
Comprehensive sports and recreational facilities are easily accessible, such as swimming pools, multi-purpose sports centre, track and field, and tennis courts. There are over 110 independent student clubs and societies available for students to mingle and develop their interests. HKU also offers accommodation on- and off-campus, with rooms and flats all being air-conditioned and fully furnished. Banks, bookstore and many facilities, like study room, computer room, music room, TV and games room, laundry room and prayer room can also be found on-campus. It has a Halal kitchen as one of its many student restaurants.
HKU attracts outstanding students from all over the world, with
around 25% of its students from 80 countries outside Hong Kong. A recent report by an international panel of experts commended HKU for its "integration of local and international students", recognizing its "friendly and internationalized campus". It also recognized the "high student satisfaction with the HKU learning experience" and the "friendly and internationalized campus". Scholarships are available for many students, including all research postgraduates.
The chances of a scholarship when applying as an international undergraduate students are high, and costs,in any case, by international standards, are very low. There are numerous scholarship schemes.
HKU is consistently ranked as the top university in Hong Kong (QS 2009), China (Chinese Universities Survey 2010), as the top university in Asia (QS AUR 2009), and within the top 25 of the world (QS 2009). Competition for admission is intense, with, for example, over 10,000 specific applicants to HKU for undergraduate programmes each year from Mainland China alone, of whom less than 300 are admitted, so the academic standards required for successful admission tend to be high..
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is situated at the south-eastern tip of China and ideally positioned at the centre of rapidly developing East Asia. It is a modern, vibrant and dazzling cosmopolitan city that offers a stimulating lifestyle and an international outlook. Being a regional hub for business, transport, tourism, communications and education, and with world-class infrastructure and information network, Hong Kong has propelled itself as an Asia's world city. It has a distinctive blend of Eastern and Western cultures, and has long served as the world's gateway to China both for business and leisure. It has been ranked as one of the safest cities in the world, and has an excellent rule of law and order, leading to it being one of the great financial centres of the world.
Contrary to popular opinion, it is not a particularly crowded city (except in parts), having some of the most spectacular country parks and beaches within reasonably easy reach of the University.
