Milestone for CityU as Dongguan campus opens

Eunice Lam

City University of Hong Kong's Dongguan campus opened yesterday, with more than 500 undergraduate and postgraduates as its first cohort.

The campus in the Songshan Lake High-Tech Industrial Development Zone spans 482,000 square meters and is being built in two phases.

The first phase, now in operation, comprises five academic buildings and four student dormitories. Construction of the second phase is set to commence next year. It will include an athletic field, an indoor sports center, an innovation center, and more academic buildings and dormitories.

In its first year, the Dongguan campus will offer four bachelor's and six master's programs encompassing engineering, material sciences, energy, computer science, business information systems and data science.

The university enrolled 120 undergraduate students and 442 postgraduate students for its first cohort, and hopes to recruit 6,000 to 10,000 in the future, CityUHK Dongguan vice president Julie Li Juan said yesterday.

She said 30 percent of students may get to do an exchange in CityU's main campus in Kowloon Tong.

Undergraduates will receive three certificates upon graduation: a certificate of degree and an academic certificate from the Dongguan branch, and an academic certificate issued by CityU in Hong Kong.

At the opening ceremony, CityUHK president Freddy Boey Yin-chiang said the new campus is an important milestone. He added: "We will build an open interdisciplinary platform to nurture innovative and international talent in our students, enabling them to contribute to the needs of national and Greater Bay Area development."

A number of government officials from Beijing and Hong Kong also took part in the ceremony, including former chief executive Leung Chun-ying, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu delivered his speech virtually, saying CityUHK Dongguan will instill vibrancy in building a talent hub in the GBA and developing an international innovation and technology center, providing talent and innovative support for the country's high-quality development.

Freshman Wang Yaxuan said she chose the Dongguan campus as English is its teaching medium.

"I think if I am going to Hong Kong or other places to develop my career in the future, I can improve my English by taking English classes here," she said.

Other Hong Kong institutions also have campuses in GBA cities. In 2005, Baptist University and Beijing Normal University jointly founded United International College in Zhuhai. Chinese University opened a Shenzhen campus in 2014 with Shenzhen University. University of Science and Technology opened its Guangzhou campus in 2022.

eunice.lam@singtaonewscorp.com