Unis need to 'help solve global problems' for HK to reach education hub goal

Eunice Lam

Hong Kong tertiary institutes need to achieve excellent results to make the city an international education hub, despite having five universities among the world's top 100, says University of Hong Kong president Zhang Xiang.

Zhang made the remarks during an education forum yesterday, in which he said the city should maintain its advantages of globalization as well as its connection and proximity to China and utilize its role as the strategic center of the Greater Bay Area.

In the latest UK-based Times Higher Education World University Rankings, five of eight Hong Kong public universities are listed in the world's top 100 - HKU, Chinese University, University of Science and Technology, City University and Polytechnic University.

Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin said the rankings show that Hong Kong has made great progress and become one of the cities with the highest concentrations of top universities in the world. She added: "We will continue to enhance the competitiveness and influence of Hong Kong's higher education by continuously optimizing the governance of our institutions with a commitment to excellence."

Choi added that authorities have increased the admission ratio of nonlocal university students as well as relaxed the working restrictions of these students, to attract a larger variety of overseas scholars to Hong Kong and develop their careers here upon graduation.

Zhang said universities should "globalize their mindset" and target solving common global problems.

"One of the approaches to be globalized is to join hands with global institutes and by engaging in international cooperation, we can ride above others," he said.

In the same forum, PolyU president Teng Jin-guang said many nonlocal students in Hong Kong are mainlanders and that the city still needs to work on enhancing student variety.

He suggested that the government consider offering loans to students from developing countries, believing these students would be capable of repaying the loans within five to 10 years should they work in Hong Kong upon graduation.

Asked about the opportunities for Hong Kong to become an international education hub, Simon Ho Shun-Man, president of private Hang Seng University said it is important that local higher institutions have different positionings.

He added that society should not only focus on university rankings and student population.

"I think we should remain cautious when looking at university rankings as there are so many factors behind them, which are not helping the institutions to make improvements," Ho said.

"I personally don't agree that the government use these top 100 university rankings as a way to import talent to work in Hong Kong. We don't need to endorse those commercial organizations [making the rankings]."

eunice.lam@singtaonewscorp.com