The Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, met members of the University Grants Committee (UGC) today (May 20) to exchange views on the latest developments of higher education in Hong Kong. The Secretary for Education, Dr Choi Yuk-lin, and the Under Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, Ms Lillian Cheong, also joined the meeting.
The UGC Chairman, Mr Tim Lui, briefed Mr Lee on the various initiatives being taken forward by the UGC to support the objectives of the Education Bureau, which included partnering with the eight UGC-funded universities to attract more students from around the world to study in Hong Kong under the Study in Hong Kong branding initiative, as well as expanding co-operation between local higher education institutions and overseas and Mainland universities in student exchange and research collaboration. Looking ahead, Mr Lui said that the UGC will actively guide the universities in achieving the current-term Government's targets on the ratio of students studying in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) disciplines and those related to the "eight centres" under the National 14th Five-Year Plan through the Planning Exercise for the 2025-28 triennium in order to cultivate talent with knowledge in diverse fields.
Mr Lee expressed his gratitude to the local, Mainland and overseas members of the UGC for their valuable insights on the development of higher education in Hong Kong, and recognised the UGC's progress in driving internationalisation, promoting innovation in teaching and enhancing research impact. He said the Government had drawn reference to the UGC's recommendation and announced in last year's Policy Address the development of Hong Kong into an international education hub for post-secondary education, which would better leverage the distinctive edges of Hong Kong's highly internationalised and diverse post-secondary education sector. He said he hopes that the UGC would continue to support universities in their pursuit of excellence in teaching and research, nurturing of outstanding talent, as well as the transformation and commercialisation of research outcomes to dovetail with the development of new quality productive forces of the country, thereby injecting continuous impetus into Hong Kong's high-quality development.
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