Faculty and Department Structure of the University of Hong Kong (by Faculty)

Module: 01 Academic · Sub-file: Faculty & Department List Last updated: 10 July 2026 This article lists, faculty by faculty, HKU's ten Departments, Schools, and Divisions, together with its major research centres, based on each faculty's official pages. Between 2024 and 2026 HKU went through a period of restructuring virtually without precedent in its history, establishing five new cross-faculty units in two years (the School of Computing and Data Science, the School of Biomedical Engineering, the School of Innovation, the School of Future Media, and the School of Governance and Policy). Each is flagged below with its date of establishment, parent faculties, and internal divisions; where official announcements vary, the official pages take precedence.

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# 0. Recent restructuring (2024–2026): the essentials

One clear thread runs through HKU's structural changes of the past two years: taking the interdisciplinary faculty scattered across traditional faculties, pulling them out, and re-forming them into independent cross-faculty Schools, covering five areas — computing/data, biomedical engineering, entrepreneurship and innovation, media, and governance. The five reorganisations were spaced almost exactly six months apart:

According to an HKU press release^※, the School of Computing and Data Science was established on 1 July 2024, integrating the former Department of Computer Science and the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, and has admitted students independently since the 2025–26 academic year. Its internal structure was subsequently refined: per the Department of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science's history page^※, on 1 July 2025 the CDS split the former Department of Computer Science in two, re-forming it as the Division of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (led by Professor Zheng ZhenGang) and the Division of Computer Science (led by Professor Wong Chi-ying). The former Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science was renamed the Division of Statistics and Actuarial Science, giving the CDS its definitive "three divisions" structure. This reorganisation directly changed the departmental lists of both the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Science (see below); a horizontal comparison of the three newest units appears in "12. Comparing the new cross-faculty schools".

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# 1. Faculty of Arts

According to the Faculty of Arts' official page, it comprises four Schools and several centres:

Per Wikipedia's page on the HKU Faculty of Arts^※, the four Schools are Chinese, English, Humanities, and Modern Languages and Cultures. See also deepdive-arts-socsci.md.

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# 2. Faculty of Engineering

Per the Faculty of Engineering's history page^※, with the Department of Computer Science folded into the CDS in 2024, the Faculty now has four departments:

The Faculty also co-runs biomedical engineering with the Faculty of Medicine; computer science (formerly in Engineering) now sits under the CDS. See deepdive-engineering.md.

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# 3. Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine

Per the Faculty of Medicine's teaching schools page^※, the Faculty is organised as "six schools and one department":

For the clinical departments, teaching hospitals (Queen Mary Hospital and others), and clinical depth, see Module 11; this article lists only the school level. The School of Biomedical Engineering was established in March 2025 as an independent cross-faculty unit with joint support from four faculties — Medicine, Dentistry, Engineering, and Science (see "12" below). Its listing here as "under the Faculty of Medicine" reflects only where it was originally conceived; it is currently governed jointly by the four faculties.

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# 4. Faculty of Science

Per the Faculty of Science's departments page^※, with the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science moved into the CDS in 2024, the Faculty's core units are:

The Faculty's page also lists related new or cross-faculty units, including the School of Computing and Data Science, the School of Biomedical Engineering, and the School of Innovation. The former Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science now sits under the CDS. The School of Innovation was formally established in November 2024, with Professor Hayden So as its Director, and welcomed its first cohort of four-year Bachelor of Science (Innovation and Technology) [BSc(I&T)] students in September 2025. It is a newly established school rather than an internal department of the Faculty of Science; it appears on the Science Faculty's page only by virtue of its interdisciplinary nature, for reference. See deepdive-science-architecture.md.

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# 5. Faculty of Social Sciences

Per the Faculty of Social Sciences' departments and centres page^※:

Major research centres (selected): Centre for Behavioural Health, Centre for Civil Society and Governance, Centre for Criminology, Water Technology and Policy Centre, Hong Kong Jockey Club Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, Population Research Centre, International Centre for China Development Studies, Stone Centre for the Study of Socioeconomic Inequality in Asia, Sau Po Centre on Ageing, and Social Sciences Research Centre.

The Faculty has established two schools in the past year, both worth flagging separately:

• School of Future Media: per the School of Future Media's website^※, the School was formally established in October 2025. It is not simply the Journalism and Media Studies Centre (JMSC) upgraded; rather, it merges the JMSC, a newly created Documentary and AI in Film and Television division, and the Global Creative Industries division formerly in the Faculty of Arts. The move reflects HKU's intention to bring journalism education and film/creative-industries education under one governance structure, in response to AI's impact on the news and content-production chain. As early as September 2023 the JMSC had launched a course on AI applications in media — among the earliest in Asia to teach the responsible use of AI in film and video production — which can be seen as the precursor to this merger.
• School of Governance and Policy: per an HKU press release^※, the School was formally established on 27 April 2026 and held its Inaugural Week on establishment, with Professor Kenneth Wong as Director. It is the fifth cross-faculty unit HKU has created in twelve months, and — at just over two months before this article's last update — the most recent addition to the University's departmental structure.

See deepdive-arts-socsci.md. The relationship between the Department of Politics and Public Administration and the School of Governance and Policy (whether staff or programmes overlap) awaits clarification from the University; see "Unfindable / TBC" at the end.

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# 6. Faculty of Law

Per the Faculty of Law's history page^※, the Faculty comprises:

It also houses several research centres (e.g. the Centre for Comparative and Public Law). See deepdive-law.md.

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# 7. Faculty of Dentistry

Per Wikipedia's page on the HKU Faculty of Dentistry^※, the Faculty is Hong Kong's only dentistry faculty, housed in the Prince Philip Dental Hospital, and is organised by dental specialty (including periodontology, oral and maxillofacial surgery, paediatric dentistry and orthodontics, oral biosciences, and others).

For the Faculty's specialties and hospital depth, see Module 11; this article records only its place as the territory's sole dentistry faculty and its basic structure.

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# 8. Faculty of Architecture

Per the Faculty of Architecture's departments and divisions page^※:

See deepdive-science-architecture.md.

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# 9. Faculty of Education

Per the Faculty of Education's history page^※, following its 2024 reorganisation the Faculty comprises four Academic Units:

The Faculty also runs programmes in Information Management and Speech and Hearing Sciences, among others. See deepdive-science-architecture.md.

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# 10. Faculty of Business and Economics (HKU Business School)

Per the Business School's academic areas page^※, since its 2017 reorganisation into a single faculty, the School is organised into six Academic Areas:

See deepdive-business-economics.md.

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# 11. Cross-faculty / newly established schools

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# 12. Comparing the new cross-faculty schools (2024–2026)

HKU has established five cross-faculty units in 24 months — a density without precedent in its history. A horizontal comparison reveals several shared patterns: all were formed by pulling together faculty from multiple existing faculties rather than hiring from scratch; all admitted their first undergraduate cohort or began independent admissions within one academic year of establishment; and all call their head a "Director" rather than the traditional "Dean" — the last being the most obvious governance difference from the ten traditional faculties, suggesting these new units remain transitional or experimental in establishment, rather than necessarily constituting an eleventh traditional faculty.

Cross-referencing the HKU press release on the School of Innovation's launch^※ and the HKU press release on the School of Governance and Policy's establishment^※, among the five new units the School of Computing and Data Science is the only one that has completed the transition from "director-led" to "independent budget and admissions," and has since further subdivided into internal divisions. As of this article's last update, the other four remain in their early days, with internal departmental/divisional structures not yet publicly settled to the same degree as the CDS — worth watching the official pages for updates.

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# 13. Unfindable / TBC

• Clinical and dental specialty department details: by division of labour these fall under Module 11 (Medicine and Hospitals); this article lists only the school level, to avoid duplication.
• Complete list of research centres across all faculties: HKU's research centres number in the hundreds and change constantly; this article lists only those prominent on each faculty's official pages and makes no claim to exhaustiveness — marked "not exhaustive."
• Internal department/division structures of the School of Future Media, School of Biomedical Engineering, and School of Governance and Policy: all three were established less than a year ago (as of July 2026) and have yet to publicly subdivide into internal divisions the way the CDS has; official pages take precedence, and this article will be updated as they evolve.
• Relationship between the Department of Politics and Public Administration and the School of Governance and Policy: whether the two share staff or course offerings has not been clarified on HKU's official pages; marked TBC for now.

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# Related reading

• faculties.md — quick reference to the ten faculties' founding years and current deans; companion piece to this article
• programs.md — programme overview, cross-referenced with the faculty structure
• academic-system.md — academic system and general education framework
• deepdive-engineering.md · engineering-faculty-history.md — in-depth engineering files and faculty history, including the run-up to the Computer Science Department's move into the CDS
• deepdive-science-architecture.md — in-depth structure of Science, Architecture, and Education, including the Science-side connections of the CDS/SBME/School of Innovation
• deepdive-arts-socsci.md — in-depth files on Arts and Social Sciences, including the Social Sciences-side context of the School of Future Media and School of Governance and Policy
• deepdive-law.md · law-faculty-history.md — in-depth law files and faculty history
• deepdive-business-economics.md — in-depth file on the Faculty of Business and Economics
• chinese-medicine-school.md — dedicated file on the School of Chinese Medicine (one of the six schools under the Faculty of Medicine), cross-referenced with the table in "3. Medicine" above