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World Class Education

Over the past decades, we have been attaching great importance to promoting quality post-secondary education by welcoming talents, upholding academic freedom, respecting institutional autonomy, fostering collaboration and promoting academic exchanges. Hong Kong aspires to further develop itself into a regional education hub with world-class universities and quality institutions through diversification and internationalisation. It is our vision to nurture bilingual students with broad knowledge base, global outlook, enriched learning experience, ability to think critically and creatively, ability to work independently and collaboratively, and most important of all, the integrity to serve the community.

World Class Institutions

Our universities’ performance is outstanding amidst our population and GDP compared with other developed countries and regions. Taking territorial area into account, we have the most densely located world-class universities than any other places in the world.

Of the 22 local degree-awarding institutions in Hong Kong, three are ranked in the world’s top 50 and three are ranked in Asia’s top 10 by the Quacquarelli Symonds’ latest University Rankings. In 2019, the Times Higher Education survey ranked three of our universities within the top 100 in the world, and three in top 20 in the “Young University (universities less than 50 years of history) Rankings” .

According to the latest Financial Times surveys, Hong Kong universities also host some of the world’s best business administration and executive business management programmes. Our performance in other fields is equally impressive. We adopt international standards in curriculum design and quality assurance.

Our institutions also join hands with other prestigious universities worldwide to offer joint academic programmes. The EMBA programme offered by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, in collaboration with Kellogg School of Management of the Northwestern University, was ranked 1st in 2016 and 2017 by the Financial Times.

Research Opportunities

Our institutions strive for excellence in conducting world-class quality research. They have also emphasised inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional collaboration in research activities so as to create synergy and maximise available resources.

The HKSAR Government established the Research Endowment Fund in 2009. With a total endowment value of HK$46 billion, it provides a stable source of funding for research conducted by the tertiary education sector in Hong Kong.

To attract both outstanding local and non-local students to pursue PhD studies in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme was launched in 2009. The scheme provides each awardee with an annual stipend of HK$309,600 (about US$39,700) and a conference and research-related travel allowance of HK$12,900 (about US$1,700) per year for a period of up to three years. For awardees who need more than three years to complete their PhD studies, additional support may be provided by the chosen institutions.