Caritas Institute of Higher Education upgraded to private university

The Caritas Institute of Higher Education has been given the green light to become the SAR's fourth private university.

That came with the Chief Executive in Council on Tuesday approving it becoming Saint Francis University.

To assess its readiness for becoming a private university, the institution invited the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications to undertake an Institutional Review in 2022. The council concluded that the institution met the standards expected of a private university.

Founded in 1985 as the Caritas Francis Hsu College, the institution became an approved post-secondary college in 2001 to operate sub-degree programs. After acquiring an accreditation status for offering degree-level programs in 2010, it changed its name to the Caritas Institute of Higher Education in 2011.

In the 2023/24 academic year, the Caritas Institute of Higher Education operates 13 self-financing locally accredited post-secondary programs, comprising 12 bachelor's degree programs and one master's degree program, with about 3,000 full-time and 500 part-time students in total.