Established in 1963 by bringing together three colleges, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has strived for excellence over the past 60 years and become a forward-looking comprehensive research university to date. Its performance is recognised worldwide, notably by a record-high ranking of 38th in QS World University Rankings.
Day by day, CUHK nurtures quality talent; carries out ground-breaking research; and takes forward new projects, including setting up state-of-the-art scientific research facilities. The university's excellence is underpinned by a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes; a unique college system that delivers whole-person education; bilingualism; multiculturalism; and many more.
With the COVID-19 epidemic under control, our social and economic activities are progressively resuming as normal. We are now set to focus on economic development. As the cradle of talent, post-secondary education provides a strong impetus for it; and CUHK is certainly one of the key players.
The current-term Government spares no effort to support the higher education sector in strengthening Hong Kong's talent pool. In the coming five years, our target is that 60% of the students from the University Grants Committee (UGC)-funded universities, including CUHK, will be studying subjects relevant to Hong Kong's development of the “eight centres” under the National 14th Five-Year Plan, and 35% studying STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics) subjects.
With innovation and technology as our top priority, we will progressively increase the number of publicly-funded research postgraduate places to 7,200 in the 2024-25 academic year. Together with the uplift of the over-enrolment ceiling of such places to 100% from 2021 onwards, the capacity of the UGC-funded universities in enrolling research postgraduate students will increase by over 50%. This will lay a solid foundation for the universities, including CUHK, to conduct extensive scientific research and nurture talent.
Also, we will launch a Research, Academic & Industry Sectors One-plus Scheme worth $10 billion. The scheme will drive co-operation among industry, academic and research sectors to further promote “1 to N” transformation and commercialisation of research outcomes. We believe CUHK's research outcomes will benefit from such a scheme.
Looking beyond our city, the future of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is just as promising. I am glad that CUHK has been expanding its footprint in the bay area over the years, with a number of education and research platforms set up.
I am equally excited by the double major programme to be jointly launched by CUHK and CUHK-Shenzhen, nurturing talent in interdisciplinary data analytics as well as specific disciplines like science, engineering and business.
Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki gave these remarks at the 60th Anniversary Commencement Ceremony of the Chinese University of Hong Kong on February 12.
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