City University of Hong Kong

Since CityUHK's establishment as a university in 1994, a rich range of factors has contributed to our success as one of the world's most dynamic young universities in terms of nurturing excellent graduates and developing research that directly benefits society.

The quality of our research and teaching, as well as the employability of our graduates and the strengths of our individual areas of specialisation, strongly positions us in a number of international surveys.

As a visionary hub for professional education and problem-driven research with a special focus on One Health, Digital Society, Smart City, Matter and Brain, CityUHK has a mission to respond to societal and technological change. Hong Kong’s first and only veterinary college, which the University established in collaboration with Cornell University in the US, pioneers excellence in veterinary education and research. Hong Kong’s first School of Data Science meets the demand for data scientists and engineers for the data-driven economy of the future.

Led by internationally renowned academics and supported by first-rate facilities, CityUHK aims to generate new knowledge and create innovative products and solutions that address pressing world problems and improve people’s quality of life.

Our Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study adds an impressive intellectual dimension to campus activities, marking a new phase in the promotion of innovative research in strategic areas by world-leading scholars, Nobel laureates and academicians.

Research is also boosted by the expertise collected at our various research centres. Two State Key Laboratories are housed at CityUHK, one for Terahertz and Millimeter Waves and one for Marine Pollution, and one Chinese National Engineering Research Center: the Hong Kong Branch of National Precious Metals Material Engineering Research Center. These prestigious facilities enrich the context in which our research projects can develop.

Our education philosophy encourages each student to make an original discovery with support via state-of-the-art technology, funding and learning spaces. Our unique curriculum immerses young people in the processes that lie behind every discovery and innovation, producing the critical skills needed for today's globalised job market.

Our burgeoning global presence has stimulated a drive towards internationalisation. Thousands of CityUHK students head overseas for exchanges every year. To help develop a greater understanding among our students of the world's diverse cultures and environments, we aim to enable 65% of them to join an overseas exchange, and thanks to community support and donations, we are getting close to this target.

Our momentum looks set to continue as we expand our campus, building more space for research laboratories and for collaborative learning opportunities, and making CityUHK a truly exciting place in which to study and research.

What makes studying at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) so unique is the strong emphasis that we place on discovery and innovation. Our unique curriculum enables students to pursue original research projects during their undergraduate studies. The rationale is that in today’s highly competitive job market and against a backdrop of rapid technological advancements, young people today need to understand the processes embedded in the discovery process. This approach is deliberately designed to seek innovative ways to generate knowledge.

To facilitate this endeavour, we firmly believe that teaching and research should be integrated, i.e. that our faculty should be adept at teaching and research, rather than researchers only researching, and teachers only teaching. Our students benefit because they learn about cutting-edge ideas from highly rated faculty, and our faculty benefit by interacting closely with students on their projects.

Our capacity to break new ground is exemplified by our pioneering work in a range of areas. For example, at the start of the 2019/20 academic year, we welcomed our first cohort of government-funded undergraduates studying on our ground-breaking bachelor’s degree in veterinary medicine, the first of its kind in the region and a collaboration with Cornell University, one of the premier institutions in the world for training in this field. No other institution in Hong Kong has developed such ambitious plans to introduce veterinary medicine.

Other firsts that make CityUHK stand out include establishing the School of Creative Media about twenty years ago when the field was relatively unknown, and setting up Hong Kong’s only and first School of Energy and Environment, two critically intertwined disciplines that are of such importance today.

In July 2018, we launched the School of Data Science and the Hong Kong Institute for Data Science, two initiatives that are firsts for Hong Kong, to acknowledge the increased global demand for highly qualified data scientists and engineers.

If you wish to know more about our other colleges and schools, click here.

The glue holding together all these initiatives is a dedication to globalising our students’ outlook by learning from international scholars who hail from a number of countries and regions, from the US and Canada to Europe and other countries in Asia, contextualising learning beyond the local and the regional, and, crucially, offering international exchange opportunities for students. Through our vast network of friends, collaborators and supporters around the world, we pledge to support such exchanges for about 65% of our undergraduate population. We have around 400 partner institutions in more than 40 countries and regions, and the majority of our students relish the chance to experience such a choice of cultures, languages and learning styles, all of which have a profound impact on a young person’s intellectual and social development.

Meanwhile, to enrich the overall campus experience, CityUHK loves the arts and sports! We have an annual arts festival that champions our student musicians, actors, dancers and singers, and our new exhibition gallery hosts regular events, such as the stellar presentation about the “Leonardo da Vinci: Art & Science. Then & Now” exhibition, aimed at bringing art to life on campus. And our sports teams are second to none. CityUHK had notched up a record-breaking 9th Grand Slam win in the local intervarsity sports competitions, while several of our athletes represent Hong Kong and have been voted Most Valuable Player over the years.

To assist students keen to study with us, a range of scholarships is available for outstanding students in academic or non-academic areas. These scholarships, for local and non-local students, can cover tuition fees, living costs and exchanges.

The best for the best

At CityUHK we give academics the support needed for high-quality research projects to blossom and meet their potential. We are very aware that the best scholars are highly sought after by world-class institutions, which is why we strive to create an atmosphere on campus that is wholly conducive to bringing to life ground-breaking ideas and finding the optimum means to making sure projects get the support they deserve.

We start by making sure that all our faculty members in our five colleges and five schools know exactly what is expected of them in terms of teaching and research. Research is supported by a suite of grants, schemes and programmes aimed at kick-starting the careers of younger faculty members and nurturing the research agenda of more established scholars. Mentoring is one of our many strengths, and department heads and senior faculty are well versed in helping new recruits to navigate their way through the list of funding avenues in Hong Kong, mainland China and further afield.

We provide a great deal of input into ensuring that the quality of teaching at the university level is of world-class standard. In fact, CityUHK is the only university to have won teaching awards sponsored by the Hong Kong government on four separate occasions. We are also highly diverse. Our international faculty accounts for approximately 70% of the total number, who come from about 35 countries and regions. Their rich backgrounds add a great deal to campus life.

In addition, our regular orientation workshops provide a comprehensive overview of matters as diverse as PhD supervision, successful grant applications, our undergraduate curriculum, and our commitment to outcome-based teaching and learning.

In essence, CityUHK is a dynamic, fast-growing university that is pursuing excellence in research and professional education. We want the best faculty to join us from wherever they are based in the world, and we understand that to attract, and retain, such talent, we need to guarantee a work-place environment that excites and sustains.

And of course, a vital part of working at CityUHK includes our students, and they never fail to impress. Local and non-local students alike are thriving, taking full advantage of the opportunity to pursue their own research ideas during their studies, and through our extensive exchange programmes, they are fully immersing themselves in multicultural activities across the world.

So for more information, visit our website, and if you can, visit Hong Kong, one of the most energetic cities on the planet, and one in which CityUHK feels perfectly at home!