Academics
Faculty and department programmes, key laboratories and landmark research breakthroughs, and the Faculty of Medicine with its teaching hospitals.
01 Academics Faculties · Departments · Programmes
12 articlesFaculties and departments, undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, and the academic system and general-education framework.
The University of Hong Kong's Academic Structure, Credit System and Common Core Curriculum
Since the "334" reform of 2012, HKU undergraduates study for four years and must complete 240 credits to graduate, of which the Common Core accounts for 36 credits; grading tops out at A+ (4.3) and is standards-based rather than norm-referenced, degrees are awarded with British-style honours classifications, and a Dean's Honour List operates alongside.
The Ten Faculties of the University of Hong Kong: An Overview
HKU opened in 1912 with three faculties — Arts, Engineering and Medicine — later adding Science (1939), Social Sciences (1967), Law (1969), Dentistry (1982), Architecture, Education and Business & Economics (2001), for a total of ten; this chapter lists each faculty's founding year, current Dean and disciplinary positioning at a glance.
Faculty and Department Structure of the University of Hong Kong (by Faculty)
A faculty-by-faculty listing of HKU's departments, schools and divisions; the University's dense run of new cross-faculty units in 2024–2026 — Computing and Data Science, Biomedical Engineering, Innovation, Future Media, and Governance and Policy — each with its establishment date and parent faculties.
HKU Programme Overview (Undergraduate / Postgraduate / Interdisciplinary)
In 2023–24 HKU offered about 145 undergraduate, 215 taught postgraduate and 89 research postgraduate programmes; this page surveys by level and faculty the flagship undergraduate degrees, nine cross-border dual degrees (Berkeley / Sciences Po / Peking University, etc.), the six BASc degrees, and the postgraduate and Graduate School landscape.
In Depth: Faculty of Arts × Faculty of Social Sciences
The Faculty of Arts, one of the three founding faculties of 1912, now comprises four Schools — Chinese, English, Humanities and Modern Languages. The Faculty of Social Sciences was founded in 1967, with social work education tracing to 1950; from 2025 HKU has added the School of Future Media and the School of Governance and Policy, reorganising journalism and governance teaching and research.
In Depth: The Faculty of Business and Economics (HKU Business School)
HKU Business School was formed in 2001 from the merger of the School of Business and the School of Economics and Finance, making it the youngest faculty; it holds dual accreditation of AACSB (2010) and EQUIS (2004) but is not "Triple Crown", was reorganised into six academic areas in 2017, oversees ten research centres and the Shenzhen Research Institutes, and its MBA has been ranked No. 1 in Asia ten times.
In-depth Profile: Faculty of Engineering
The Faculty of Engineering was one of HKU's three founding faculties in 1912. After pre-war splits, post-war suspension and a 1960 revival, it now comprises four departments — Civil, Electrical & Electronic, Data & Systems (formerly Industrial), and Mechanical. Computer Science moved to the newly created CDS in 2024.
Five Decades of HKU Law — Hong Kong's First Law Faculty (1969–present)
The HKU Faculty of Law began as a department in 1969 and became an independent faculty in 1984 — Hong Kong's first law faculty; its LLB/PCLL were the first recognised local qualifications for practice, it moved into the Cheng Yu Tung Tower in 2012, and it was consolidated into a unitary structure in 2024.
In Depth: The Faculty of Law (Hong Kong's Oldest Law School)
HKU Law is Hong Kong's oldest law school, founded in 1969 as a department in the Faculty of Social Sciences and elevated to an independent faculty in 1984; its LLB/PCLL were the first locally recognised qualifications for legal practice, it runs seven research centres, and it ranked 20th in the world in the 2026 QS subject rankings.
A Century of the HKU Faculty of Engineering — One of the Three Founding Faculties and Its Swire Professorship
The Faculty of Engineering was one of HKU's three founding faculties in 1912; founding Dean Middleton Smith held the Swire-endowed Taikoo Professorship; the three departments weathered pre-war splits, wartime destruction and post-war suspension, and after reopening in 1960 played a deep role in Hong Kong's reconstruction and industrialisation.
Deep Dive: Faculty of Science × Faculty of Architecture × Faculty of Education
The evolution of the Faculty of Science (1939), Faculty of Architecture (department from 1950, faculty from 1984) and Faculty of Education (department from 1917, faculty from 1984); the Faculty of Science's recent spin-off of three new schools including computing and data science, its recruitment of two Nobel laureates, and the Faculty of Education's subject ranked No. 1 worldwide for several consecutive years.
HKU School of Chinese Medicine — Integrating Chinese and Western Medicine Since 1998
The HKU School of Chinese Medicine was established in early 1998 and restructured in 2002, positioning itself around integrative Chinese-Western medicine; in the six-year Bachelor of Chinese Medicine, final-year students complete a 40-week clerkship in Shanghai and elsewhere, and graduates must pass the licensing examination before they can register; the clinical teaching centre moved in 2023 to a site adjacent to Queen Mary Hospital.
04 Research Labs · Breakthroughs · Startups
8 articlesKey laboratories, landmark breakthroughs, named research centres, and spin-off ventures.
HKU Research Institutes: State Key Laboratories, InnoHK Centres and the Strategic Research Architecture
A systematic account of HKU's State Key Laboratories, government flagship InnoHK research centres, Shenzhen Institute (HKU-SIRI), CAS-HKU Joint Laboratories and wider strategic research architecture, with founding years, partner institutions and host faculties individually verified.
HKU and Emerging Infectious Diseases: 1997 Avian Flu, 2003 SARS and COVID-19
From the 1997 avian flu to 2003 SARS and the COVID-19 pandemic, HKU's microbiology and public health teams have three times been thrust to the front line of emerging infectious diseases; this article traces, in chronological order, their specific research contributions across the three outbreaks, the institutional extension of the WHO Collaborating Centre, and fact-checks and refines each "world-first" claim.
HKU Research Output Overview: RAE, RGC Funding, Nature Index and Citation Performance
Quantifies HKU's overall research performance: results from the UGC-funded Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2020); RGC competitive funding outcomes (leading all institutions in 2025/26); Nature Index ranking and disciplinary distribution; Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers (a record 54) and the University's record of State Science and Technology Awards.
HKU Named Research Centres, Endowed Professionships and Academic Honours
An overview of the establishment mechanisms and donor patterns behind HKU's endowed professorships (including Outstanding Young Professorships), the provenance of named research centres and buildings/halls, and the awarding rules for its two honours systems — honorary degrees (five types) and honorary university fellowships — with the latest 2026 ceremonies and notable past recipients included.
HKU Technology Transfer, Spin-offs and the Startup Ecosystem
A survey of HKU's TTO/Versitech system, the iDendron/TSSSU@HKU incubation mechanisms, EEF/Gobi-HKU Fund I startup capital, and spin-off cases (Novoheart, archiREEF, SewingDX and others).
HKU's Virology and Microbiology Legacy: From Naming Pathogens to International Honours
HKU's virology tradition spans research platforms from SKLEID and HKU-Pasteur to InnoHK, built up across outbreaks from 1997 avian flu to 2020 COVID-19, plus multiple newly discovered pathogens named directly after "HKU" or Hong Kong; Kwok-Yung Yuen and Malik Peiris received the 2021 Future Science Prize.
Putting Hong Kong on the World Liver-Transplant Map — HKU's Living-Donor Breakthroughs (from 1991)
HKU performed Hong Kong's first liver transplant in 1991, originated adult right-lobe living-donor transplantation in 1996 and won a First-Class National Science and Technology Progress Award in 2005; cumulative cases exceeded 1,585 by end of 2022, and from 2025 it leads the world's first robotic-assisted living-donor transplant trial.
Lifting HKU into Space — The Laboratory for Space Research (LSR) and Hong Kong's Satellites and Astrophysics
The Laboratory for Space Research (LSR, founded by Sun Kwok in 2016) is HKU's only interdisciplinary space-science platform, spanning planetary science, astrophysics and stellar evolution; it co-led the launch of HKU's first scientific satellite in 2020 and leads the Chang'E-7 payload, the MoonFlash lunar-orbit CubeSat and the Tianwen-3 mission.
11 Medicine Faculty · Hospitals
9 articlesMedicine- and health-related faculties and departments, teaching hospitals, and clinical practice.
Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine (Part 1): The 1887 Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese and Sun Yat-sen's Student Years
Founded on 1 October 1887, the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese was the first Western medical school in Hong Kong; only two students graduated in its first cohort in 1892, with Sun Yat-sen earning distinction in 10 of 12 subjects; the College was renamed the Hong Kong College of Medicine in 1907 and incorporated into HKU as a founding faculty in 1912.
Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine (Part 2): The Five-School Structure, the MBBS Programme and the 2005–2006 Naming
The Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine currently comprises five schools — clinical medicine, public health, biomedical sciences, nursing and Chinese medicine — with the six-year MBBS as its flagship undergraduate degree. The Faculty was named "Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine" by a Council resolution in 2005, effective 1 January 2006, following a HK$1 billion gift from the Li Ka Shing Foundation; the naming provoked controversy.
Teaching hospitals and the clinical network: Queen Mary, HA associate hospitals and the HKU–Shenzhen Hospital
The Faculty of Medicine's core teaching base is Queen Mary Hospital, opened in 1937, radiating out to HA associate hospitals — Grantham, Tung Wah, Tsan Yuk and others, each with a history of a century or more — and on to the private Gleneagles and the jointly run HKU–Shenzhen Hospital in mainland China; Queen Mary is the cradle of organ transplantation in Hong Kong, and Phase 1 of its redevelopment was substantially completed in late 2024.
Clinical Departments and Research Strengths: Liver Transplantation, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Cardiology, Oncology and Metabolism
A survey of the 14 clinical departments of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, including Fan Sheung-tat and Lo Chung-mau's pioneering adult right-lobe living-donor liver transplantation in Surgery; Hodgson and Arthur Yau's "Hong Kong Operation" in Orthopaedics; and the multiple coronavirus discoveries of Yuen Kwok-yung (Microbiology) and Malik Peiris (School of Public Health).
The Forerunner of the HKU Medical Faculty — the 1887 Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese and Sun Yat-sen, "Graduate No. 1
The Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese (1887–1912) admitted 128 students in 25 years and produced only 51 LMSH licentiates; clinical teaching leaned on the Alice–Nethersole mission hospital family; Sun Yat-sen was "Graduate No. 1", followed by alumni including Wong Chung-yik (HKU's first Chinese professor), Li Shu-fan and Kwan King-leung.
Faculty of Dentistry: Hong Kong's only dental school and its world-leading rankings
Founded in 1982, the HKU Faculty of Dentistry is Hong Kong's only dental school, based at the Prince Philip Dental Hospital; it ranked No. 1 globally in the QS subject rankings for dentistry three consecutive times (2016–2018) and stands at No. 2 globally in 2026; the BDS takes in around 90 students a year, and from the 2026 intake has opened to mainland and non-local students for the first time.
School of Public Health, School of Chinese Medicine, School of Nursing and School of Biomedical Sciences
A survey of the four non-clinical schools under the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine: the School of Public Health, founded in 2004 and designated a WHO Collaborating Centre in 2014; the School of Chinese Medicine, founded in 1998; the School of Nursing, tracing to the Department of Nursing Studies of 1995; and the School of Biomedical Sciences, formed in 2015 from the merger of three departments.
The HKU-Shenzhen Hospital "Reform Laboratory" — Package Fees, Contract Employment and Cross-Border Settlement
HKU-Shenzhen Hospital, funded by the Shenzhen municipal government and supported by HKU's modern management model from 2012, was the first mainland public hospital to introduce "general practice before specialist," "package fees of around RMB 200" and "contract employment with sunshine salaries across the board," and the first to pilot Elderly Health Care Voucher cross-border settlement and the "Hong Kong and Macao Drug and Device Access" scheme — making it both a model and a focal point of debate in Shenzhen–Hong Kong healthcare reform.
The Coming and Going of the School of Nursing — HKU Nursing Education's Closure, Re-establishment and Path to Professionalism
HKU's School of Nursing was founded as the "Department of Nursing Studies" in 1995, enrolling 42 students in its first cohort; it was elevated to a School in 2010 and is now one of five schools in the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine; its research has been ranked top among Hong Kong nursing institutions in consecutive RAE exercises, and it placed 3rd in Asia in the 2021 QS subject rankings.