The Chinese University's dean of medicine Philip Chiu warned on Monday against further cuts in the SAR's budget allocations to educational institutions, saying the medical school would find it hard cope with any more financial clawbacks.

As part of the government’s broader fiscal consolidation initiatives announced last year, CUHK and other institutions are facing a two percent annual cut to its recurrent grants between 2025 and 2028.

The university is also required to return more than HK$1 billion from its reserve fund.

Speaking at a spring reception for the media, Chiu said CUHK Medicine had come up with a strategic plan for its future development that is based on the assumption that there would be no further cuts in its grants in the SAR's budget to be presented on Wednesday.

“If there's a further clawback, I think that would definitely affect all our plans that we have proposed or even back in our mind to plan for the next five years to support our national 15th five-year plan development, especially in terms of the medical innovation and the clinical translation,” he said.

Chiu expressed hope the government would provide further funding for talent recruitment and retention as well as to foster technological innovation in the medical field.

To strengthen its teaching capacity, CUHK Medicine said construction of a new teaching research complex, capable of accommodating 1,000 researchers and academics, was expected to be completed in 2027.

The faculty also plans to recruit 33 more professors this year.

Chiu said recruitment of these professors would not be limited by country or background and would be based on the needs of individual departments.

“We need additional manpower to support other new initiation and our conventional, traditional flagship research programme,” he said.

“And we need new recruits and also leading academics in neuroscience, cardiovascular, and also infectious disease. I believe that we will not be limited to a country or to their background.”

Other considerations, Chiu said, include the recruits’ experience and age group, with ideal candidates being young and having strong potential for advancement.

CUHK Medicine is also launching a new PhD track that allows students to begin their doctoral studies part-time during their second year of basic specialist training at public hospitals.

Tony Mok, associate dean, noted that implementing the programme would involve further discussions with the Hospital Authority as it essentially allowed students to remain academic researchers at CUHK at the same time that they functioned as clinical employees within the public hospitals system.


Edited by Tony Sabine