The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is planning a radical departure from traditional education at its new Northern Metropolis campus, with an emphasis on real-world industry projects and a multidisciplinary learning approach.

Outlining the vision in an interview with RTHK, President Xiang Zhang said the goal is to build a "truly internationalised powerhouse", which aligns with the goals of the nation’s 15th Five-Year Plan.

Rather than functioning as a conventional satellite campus, he described the initiative as a reimagining of higher education, driven by interdisciplinary collaboration and a fundamental transformation of the learning experience.

Zhang said that Hong Kong's status as a global city, combined with HKU's position as one of the region's most internationally diverse universities, places the institution in a unique position to spearhead this educational evolution.

"We want to go into the Northern Metropolis, our new campus, to be a truly internationalised powerhouse," he said.

With artificial intelligence rapidly reshaping both society and the employment landscape, Zhang contended that conventional education has become increasingly outdated.

"Our student not only learned arts and science, but also to be a good businessman, a good business education," he said, emphasising that cross-disciplinary immersion is "very critical" to prepare students for the challenges ahead.

At the heart of this vision lies an innovative educational model already being piloted through HKU's newly established School of Innovation.

Rather than spending all four years in lecture halls and examination rooms, students focus on foundational subjects such as mathematics and physics in their first two years.

The remaining two years take a markedly different direction: students immerse themselves in a commercialisation or industry project, where they must develop a tangible product and address genuine industry challenges.

"Through that, they want to build a real product, solving real industry questions or solutions," Zhang said.

He observed that such challenges rarely fit neatly within conventional academic boundaries, often requiring expertise across chemistry, physics and medical science simultaneously.

The ultimate objective, he said, is to produce graduates equipped with the comprehensive knowledge necessary to tackle the complex, multifaceted problems in the modern world.

In essence, Zhang envisions the new campus functioning as a living "test bed" for industry collaboration – a space where the traditional divisions between classroom, laboratory and marketplace effectively dissolve.

These attributes, Zhang said, will distinguish HKU's Northern Metropolis campus as more than just a new facility.

It represents, in his view, an entirely new model of university for a new era.



Edited by Edmond Fong