University Partners
The University markedly extended its network with top institutions in different parts of the world over 2018-19, with agreements increasing to over 300 active partners globally. This represents an increase of 24% compared with the previous year. The agreements set out to foster academic and research exchanges as well as collaborations. Such arrangements included new School of Science partnerships with Harvard Medical School Teaching Hospital, the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging at Stanford University and University College London to advance translational neuroscience research, and a collaboration with the University of Haifa, Israel, to develop academic ties related to marine sciences.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the National Humanities Center in North Carolina, an independent institute for the advanced study of the humanities. The arrangement, effective from October 2018, will allow the School of Humanities and Social Science to nominate up to three humanities faculty annually for fellowships at the Center. The School continued its successful nomination of faculty under the Harvard Yenching Visiting Scholar fellowship program, with Prof. Carine YIU conducting research under the program in 2018-19. The Interdisciplinary Programs Office (IPO) also agreed a Memorandum of Understanding with independent leadership organization Salzburg Global Seminars to sponsor IPO students to join Salzburg programs.
International Business Links
Ties with overseas businesses extended over the year to strengthen insights on both sides. New partnerships included the School of Business and Management’s collaboration with multinational accountancy firm KPMG to boost accountancy training, as well as the School of Science’s Department of Mathematics’ agreement with leading global semi-conductor device firm Nexperia on data analytic research.
World Economic Forum and Winter Davos 2019 A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in October 2018 with the World Economic Forum, following an invitation to HKUST to join the organization’s 28-member Global University Leaders Forum (GULF). The group fosters peer-to-peer dialogue between presidents of the world’s leading universities and collaboration with the main forum’s initiatives and activities. HKUST is the only member from Hong Kong. In January 2019, President Shyy joined the GULF session at Davos, Switzerland, and also met Prof. Klaus SCHWAB, Founder and Executive Chairman of WEF. HKUST now has more than 10 faculty members who are part of the on-going WEF Expert Network: Prof. Wei SHYY, Prof. Nancy IP, Prof. Pascale FUNG, Prof. HE Guojun, Prof. Kim CHOW Hei-Man, Prof.
Matthew MCKAY, Prof. Yoshio NOZAWA, Prof. Albert PARK, Prof. Fugee TSUNG, Prof. WANG Yi and Prof.
ZHANG Qian. The network forms a multidisciplinary community of leading minds that aims to improve the world by shaping the global agenda.
Regional University Reach
HKUST successfully hosted the 2019 Asian University Alliance Summit in April 2019. Over 15 Presidents and Vice-Presidents from member universities around Asia attended, engaging in constructive dialogue on the role of universities in advancing sustainability, innovation, and entrepreneurship ecosystems. HKUST is one of the founders of the 15-member alliance.
HKUST also hosted several gatherings related to the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), an alliance of leading institutions from 17 Pacific Rim economies. The APRU international secretariat is now based at the University.
At the three-day 16th Senior International Leaders’
Meeting in October 2018, more than 70 delegates discussed the Association’s latest strategic plan and issues ranging from closing the digital skills gap to ways to create impact through research. President Shyy gave the keynote address, focused on “HKUST in the Age of Innovation: Contributions, Opportunities, and Expectations”. At the two-day APRU Population Aging Conference in December 2018, 90 participants took part in discussions focused on the theme of “Dementia, Cognition, and Healthy and Productive Aging”.
Separately, the Vice-President for Institutional Advancement was appointed Co-Chair for the APRU’s Asia Pacific Women in Leadership program. The program sets out to create initiatives to impact on higher education institutions across Asia Pacific. Also on the diversity front, the Asia Pacific Rising Stars Women in Engineering Workshop in October 2018 was hosted by the University’s School of Engineering in association with top Asian and Oceania universities. The event brought together young female engineers and postgraduate students from leading institutions worldwide to explore a career in teaching and research in Asia Pacific.
As part of the University’s effort to share best practices and exchange ideas on university advancement with professionals from around the world, the Director of Public Affairs co-chaired the planning committee (marketing and communications track) of the annual four-day Asia Pacific Advancement Conference. The conference was organized by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, a global association for professionals in advancement. The Director also shared her insights on crisis management citing a case study of HKUST at the event, held in Brisbane, Australia, in April 2019.
ANNUAL REPORT 2018-19 LOCAL TO GLOBAL
School of Business and Management collaborated with multinational accountancy firm KPMG to boost accountancy training.
At the Association of Pacific Rim Universities’
three-day 16th Senior International Leaders’ Meeting held in October 2018, more than 70 delegates discussed issues ranging from closing the digital skills gap to ways to create impact through research.
HKUST entered into a strategic collaboration with China Construction Bank to provide training for the bank’s employees.
A tripartite agreement was signed in December 2018 between HKUST, the Guangzhou Municipal Government and Guangzhou University to establish HKUST (GZ).
The first phase of construction of the HKUST (GZ) campus is expected to be completed in the fall of 2022.
ANNUAL REPORT 2018-19