Data snapshot: student, staff and financial figures come from HKU's "Quick Stats", 2025/26 academic year (page noted as current as of April 2026); leadership as at the time of compilation in June 2026. The first half of this article is a quick-reference fact card; the second half traces multi-year trends using the official "Quick Stats" and the "University Profile" sections of successive Annual Reports, supplemented by University Grants Committee (UGC) statistics. Scope note: HKU's Quick Stats cover the whole university (including self-financed taught postgraduate programmes, or TPg); UGC figures cover UGC-funded places only. The two sets of numbers cannot be directly compared. All figures are time-sensitive and scope-dependent; verify against the latest official releases before citing.
For the full provenance of the motto, coat of arms, colours and anthem, see symbols.md.
# 3. Governance and leadership (as at compilation, 2026)
HKU is a statutory university; its governance powers are set out in the University of Hong Kong Ordinance (Cap. 1053 of the Laws of Hong Kong) and its Statutes.
Office
Name
Remarks
Chancellor
Ex officio, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR
HKU operates a hall system (residential halls / colleges), not the college system used at, say, CUHK. According to public compilations, there are around thirteen residential halls plus several non-residential halls※, including the oldest, University Hall; the independently run St John's College and Ricci Hall; and, at the Jockey Club Student Quarters III, the residential colleges Ming Wah Hall, Chi Sun College, Lap Chee College and New College.
This section draws primarily on HKU's official "Quick Stats" and the "University Profile" sections of successive Annual Reports, with UGC statistics as a supplement, tracing multi-year trends in students, staff, degrees and finance.
Sex ratio: according to the Quick Stats overview, the overall male-to-female ratio is about 0.9:1※ (slightly more women). Finer year-by-year and category-by-category sex breakdowns are scattered across the official sub-pages; this article marks them "see official sub-pages".
# 10.4 Graduates and degrees conferred (2024/2025)
Year-by-year, category-by-category sex breakdowns: the University does not publish these in a single consolidated table; they are scattered across individual profile sub-pages — this article cites only the overview figure of "about 0.9:1," marking finer detail as "see official sub-pages."
UGC-scope student numbers: this article primarily uses the whole-university scope (Quick Stats). For the UGC-funded places scope (for cross-institution comparison), consult the Statistics section of the UGC Annual Report※ — this volume carries "overall enrolment on UGC-funded programmes" and the institution-level tables searchable from the UGC statistics webpage, such as enrolment by university and by level of study. The two scopes must not be mixed.
Historical figures follow the official Annual Report for each year; when comparing across years, check that the scope (with/without honorary and visiting, with/without self-financed programmes) is consistent.
