The School of Nursing’s Arrival and Departure — The Suspension, Relaunch, and Professionalisation of Nursing Education at HKU

The School of Nursing’s Arrival and Departure — The Suspension, Relaunch, and Professionalisation of Nursing Education at HKU

This article belongs to the 11 Medicine/Hospitals module, focusing on the institutional history of the School of Nursing — its founding as a department in 1995, elevation to a school in 2010, and its role within Hong Kong’s policy shift from hospital-based to university-based nursing education. For the broader history of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, see li-ka-shing-faculty-of-medicine-1.md (Part 1: the 1887 College origins) and li-ka-shing-faculty-of-medicine-2.md (Part 2: the five-school structure); for the School of Public Health and the School of Chinese Medicine, see school-of-public-health-and-chinese-medicine.md. Data current to June 2026.

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In a sentence: The School of Nursing at The University of Hong Kong was established in 1995 as the Department of Nursing Studies (護理學系)^※, admitting an initial cohort of 42 students; it was elevated to the School of Nursing (護理學院) in 2010^※ and is now one of HKUMed’s five schools, having been ranked first among Hong Kong nursing institutions for research achievement in the UGC Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) in both 2014 and 2020^※.

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# 1. At a Glance

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# 2. The Bigger Picture: Why Did University-Based Nursing Only Begin in the 1990s?

# 2.1 The Long Reign of the Hospital Apprenticeship (1937–1989)

Before the HKU Department of Nursing Studies existed, nurse training in Hong Kong followed a British-style apprenticeship model: Queen Mary Hospital opened its hospital-based nursing school in 1937, the city’s first formal training institution for registered nurses^※. After three years of on-the-job training, students sat a licensing examination administered by the Nursing Board of Hong Kong^※ to qualify as registered nurses. The system persisted for decades, but clinical-research training remained thin, and nursing struggled to establish itself as an independent discipline within the university system. By the late 1980s, advances in medical technology and the planning for the Hospital Authority had sharpened the focus on nursing professionalisation.

# 2.2 The 1989 Policy Pivot: The Nursing Board Proposes Degree Programmes at Universities

In 1989, the Nursing Board of Hong Kong recommended that a small number of degree-level nursing programmes be established at local universities^※ — the starting point for the institutional reforms that followed. The recommendation began to be implemented in the early 1990s: in 1990, Hong Kong Polytechnic (the predecessor of PolyU) became the first local institution to admit a cohort of 40 nursing degree students, creating the city’s first pre-registration nursing degree programme offered by a university^※. Traditional hospital nursing schools thereafter began a gradual contraction of their intakes.

When the Hospital Authority took over management of all public hospitals in 1993^※, the momentum toward professionalisation strengthened further. By the 2000s, all pre-registration nursing training in Hong Kong had been transferred to universities, and hospital-based schools had essentially withdrawn from pre-registration education^※; it was estimated that by then, more than half of the city’s nurses held a university nursing degree.

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# 3. The Birth of HKU’s Department of Nursing Studies (1995)

# 3.1 Why Was HKU "Five Years Late" in Launching a Nursing Degree?

Hong Kong Polytechnic had started its nursing degree in 1990, and the Faculty of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong followed in 1991. HKU only established its Department of Nursing Studies in 1995^※, third in the sequence. The first four-year Bachelor of Nursing (Honours) programme admitted 42 students^※. The department was initially housed within the Queen Mary Hospital complex^※, drawing on the clinical resources of HKU’s principal teaching hospital to build its practical training base — those 42 students became the founding cohort of the HKU nursing education lineage.

# 3.2 The Early Leadership

The department’s first head was Professor S. P. Chow, who took up the post in 1995^※. Dr Sophia Chan Siu-chee (who would later serve as Secretary for Food and Health) briefly helmed the department from January to August 1996; from September, Professor Patricia L. Sullivan took over^※. Sophia Chan returned as head in 2000^※. This trajectory — shuttling between academia and government — provided an early footnote to the department’s entanglement with Hong Kong’s health policy landscape.

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# 4. From Department to School: The Process of Institutional Elevation (2000–2010)

# 4.1 A Steadily Expanding Programme Portfolio

Throughout the 2000s, the Department of Nursing Studies progressively broadened its educational footprint. The Master of Nursing in Advanced Practice was launched in 1999^※. In 2001, the first MPhil and PhD students were admitted, formally inaugurating nursing postgraduate research education^※. The first cohort of the Master of Nursing (MNurs) graduated in 2002^※. During this period, the department also moved in 2001 from Queen Mary Hospital to the Sassoon Road campus^※, marking a tighter spatial integration with the rest of the medical faculty.

The Centre for Health Promotion was established within the department in 2004^※; in 2005, the Youth Quitline went live^※. The department’s knowledge exchange function was beginning to crystallise, extending beyond teaching and research alone.

# 4.2 The Doctor of Nursing and the Undergraduate Curriculum Reform (2009–2012)

In 2009, the Doctor of Nursing (DNurs) programme and a part-time pre-registration bachelor’s programme were launched simultaneously^※, further extending the training ladder from undergraduate to professional doctorate.

In 2010, the Department of Nursing Studies was formally elevated to the School of Nursing^※ — a significant institutional milestone that gave nursing an organisational standing on a par with the other schools within HKUMed, rather than existing as a subordinate department.

Professor Agnes Tiwari assumed leadership of the school in 2011^※. Around the same time, Hong Kong’s higher education sector was implementing the "3-3-4" academic structure reform. In response, the school introduced a five-year full-time pre-registration BNurs programme in 2012^※, designed to serve the first cohort of students graduating under the new senior secondary curriculum.

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# 5. Within the Five-School HKUMed Structure (2015–Present)

# 5.1 The School of Nursing as One of Five Schools

Today, the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine (HKUMed) comprises five schools alongside a number of departments^※. The School of Nursing is one of them:

Within this five-school configuration, the School of Nursing and the School of Chinese Medicine (1998) are the two earliest-established, predating the School of Biomedical Sciences (2015) and the School of Clinical Medicine (2022).

# 5.2 Current Leadership and Research Focus

Professor Chia-Chin Lin joined from Taipei Medical University in 2017, concurrently holding the Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Charity Foundation Professorship in Nursing^※. She has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers, is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and an inductee of the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame^※, and specialises in cancer pain management and end-of-life care.

In 2022, the school moved with HKUMed into the new academic building at 3 Sassoon Road; its high-fidelity simulation training centre earned professional accreditation the same year^※ and is now described as one of the most advanced nursing simulation facilities in Southeast Asia^※.

# 5.3 Research Rankings and Institutional Recognition

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# 6. The School’s Intersection with Hong Kong Nursing Workforce Policy

# 6.1 The Workforce-Policy Logic Behind the School’s Founding

The establishment of HKU’s Department of Nursing Studies in 1995 was embedded in the structural policy shift of the 1990s that moved Hong Kong nursing education wholesale from a hospital-based to a university-based model^※. The Hospital Authority took over public hospitals in 1993, nursing schools were progressively wound down, and the territory-wide annual intake of university nursing degree places stood at roughly 180 (before expansion in 1995). Even as the system pursued professionalisation, it had to endure the persistent strain of an undersized workforce.

# 6.2 The Policy Influence of Successive Leaders

The school’s successive heads have left a visible mark on Hong Kong’s health policy landscape. Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee moved from HKU’s School of Nursing to serve as Under Secretary for Food and Health (2012) and later Secretary for Food and Health (2017–2022)^※, driving community health reforms during her tenure. After stepping down as school head, Professor Agnes Tiwari served as Chairperson of the Nursing Council of Hong Kong^※, directly involved in regulating professional registration and development for all of Hong Kong’s nurses. This pattern of movement between the school and the policy sphere is a distinctive feature within the landscape of Hong Kong higher education.

# 6.3 The Present: Nurse Shortages and the Pressure to Expand

Hong Kong has faced a severe nursing workforce gap in recent years. According to projections, the shortfall of general nurses in the public healthcare system could reach around 9,500 by 2025^※, with population ageing — the proportion of residents aged 65 and above stood at roughly 22% in 2024, a marked rise from about 15% a decade earlier^※ — acting as one of the primary drivers. At the same time, in July 2024, Hong Kong’s legislative body passed new legislation allowing qualified overseas-trained nurses to work in public hospitals, clinics, and elderly care homes without sitting the local registration examination: they may apply for special registration after three years of work experience^※.

Responding to this shortage, HKU’s School of Nursing has launched a self-financed full-time Bachelor of Science in Nursing^※ programme aimed at students from mainland China and overseas. The programme uses bilingual instruction, is linked with HKU-Shenzhen Hospital, and enables graduates to sit for the mainland Chinese nurse registration examination — indicating that the school is exploring a new positioning in cross-border nursing education, beyond simply supplementing the local workforce.

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# 7. Key Programme and Institutional Timeline

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# 8. See Also

• Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine: 1887 college origins and five-school structure — Part 1 · Part 2
• School of Public Health and School of Chinese Medicine: ./school-of-public-health-and-chinese-medicine.md
• Queen Mary Hospital and other teaching hospitals: ./teaching-hospitals.md
• Research strengths across HKUMed’s clinical departments: ./departments-and-strengths.md

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