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.
Academic Structure, Credit System, and the Common Core Curriculum at The University of Hong Kong
Since the 2012 "3-3-4" reform, HKU operates a four-year undergraduate curriculum requiring 240 credits for graduation. The Common Core Curriculum accounts for 36 credits and spans five Areas of Inquiry. The grading system is capped at an A+ (4.3 grade point), and most degrees are awarded with British-style honours classifications.
An Overview of the Ten Faculties of The University of Hong Kong
In 1912, HKU began teaching with three faculties: Arts, Engineering, and Medicine. Science (1939), Social Sciences (1967), Law (1969), Dentistry (1982), Architecture, Education, and Business and Economics (2001) were subsequently added to form ten faculties. This article provides a quick-reference listing of each faculty's founding year, current dean, and disciplinary positioning.
HKU Teaching and Research Units by Faculty
A faculty-by-faculty listing of HKU departments, schools, and divisions, with emphasis on the July 2024 launch of the School of Computing and Data Science (merging the former Department of Computer Science and Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science) and its knock-on effects on the unit structures of Engineering and Science.
A Survey of Programmes at The University of Hong Kong (Undergraduate / Postgraduate / Interdisciplinary)
HKU offered approximately 145 undergraduate, 215 taught postgraduate, and 89 research postgraduate programmes in the 2023–24 academic year. This article organises flagship undergraduate units and double degrees by faculty and lists the six BASc interdisciplinary programmes launched from 2019/20.
Deep Archive: Faculty of Arts × Faculty of Social Sciences
The Faculty of Arts is one of the three founding faculties (1912), now comprising four Schools: Chinese, English, Humanities, and Modern Languages & Cultures. The Faculty of Social Sciences was founded in 1967; both the Law Faculty and journalism education (JMSC, 1999) originated under it, and social work training can be traced back to 1950.
Deep Profile: Faculty of Business and Economics (HKU Business School)
HKU Business School, the University’s youngest faculty, was formed in 2001 by merging the School of Business and the School of Economics and Finance. It holds dual AACSB (2010) and EQUIS (2004) accreditation, but not the “Triple Crown.” Reorganised in 2017 into six academic areas, its MBA has been ranked first in Asia.
Deep Archive: Faculty of Engineering
The Faculty of Engineering is one of HKU's three founding Faculties (1912), with inaugural Dean and Taikoo Professor C.A. Middleton Smith. In 2024 the Department of Computer Science moved into the newly established School of Computing and Data Science; the Faculty now comprises four departments: Civil, Electrical & Electronic, Industrial & Manufacturing Systems, and Mechanical Engineering.
Deep Profile: Faculty of Law (Hong Kong's Oldest Law School)
The HKU Faculty of Law is Hong Kong's oldest law school. It began as a Department of Law within the Faculty of Social Sciences in 1969 and became an independent Faculty in 1984, with Dafydd Evans as its founding head. The LLB and PCLL were the first local qualifications recognised for legal practice. Ranked 20th globally in the 2026 QS subject rankings.
HKU Faculty of Law at Half a Century – Hong Kong’s First Law School (1969–Present)
HKG’s Faculty of Law began in 1969 as a department with 3 teachers and 40 students, became a school in 1978 and an independent faculty in 1984, as Hong Kong’s first law school; its LLB and PCLL were the first locally accredited degrees leading to legal practice; introduced the JD in 2009.
A Century of the HKU Faculty of Engineering — One of the Three Founding Faculties and Its Ties to the Swire Chair
The Faculty of Engineering is one of HKU's three founding faculties from 1912. Its first Dean, C.A. Middleton Smith, held the Swire-endowed Taikoo Professorship (the named chair was formally instituted in 1919). The departments of Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering came into being from 1913, and after the war, the Faculty played a deep role in Hong Kong's reconstruction and industrialisation.
Deep Archive: Faculty of Science × Faculty of Architecture × Faculty of Education
The evolution of the Faculty of Science (1939), Faculty of Architecture (Department 1950 / elevated 1984), and Faculty of Education (Department 1917 / elevated 1984); the 2024–25 spin-outs of the Schools of Computing and Data Science, Biomedical Engineering, and Innovation from the Science Faculty, and its recruitment of two Nobel laureates to Chemistry and Physics.
HKU School of Chinese Medicine — The \"Integrative Chinese-Western Medicine\" Programme That Began in 1998
The HKU School of Chinese Medicine was established in early 1998, restructured in 2002 with a dedicated teaching building, and positions itself around \"Integrative Chinese-Western Medicine\". Its clinical teaching centre relocated in 2023 to the HKUMed Academic Building, a footbridge away from 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 Strategic Research Architecture
A systematic overview of HKU's State Key Laboratories, the government's flagship InnoHK research centres, its Shenzhen Institute (HKU-SIRI), CAS-HKU Joint Laboratories, and other strategic research architecture, with establishment years, partner institutions, and host faculties verified item by item.
HKU and Emerging Infectious Diseases: 1997 Avian Flu, 2003 SARS, and 2020 COVID-19
From the 1997 avian flu to the 2003 SARS and then the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, HKU's microbiology and public health teams have been on the frontline of global emerging infectious diseases three times. This article chronologically details the specific research contributions in these three epidemics, the institutional extension into a WHO Collaborating Centre, and meticulously verifies and refines claims of \"world first\" status.
HKU Research Output at a Glance: RAE, RGC Funding, Nature Index & Citation Performance
Quantifying HKU's overall research performance: results from the UGC's Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2020), outcomes from RGC competitive funding exercises (leading all institutions in 2025/26), Nature Index rankings and disciplinary breakdown, and citation and highly cited researcher performance.
Named Research Centres, Endowed Professorships, and Academic Honours at HKU
Examines the establishment mechanism and donors behind HKU’s Endowed Professorships, the origins of named research centres and buildings, and the rules governing the two academic honours systems—honorary degrees and Honorary University Fellowships—with the year each was established verified.
HKU Technology Transfer, Spin-offs, and the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
An overview of HKU's Technology Transfer Office (TTO)/Versitech system, the iDendron and TSSSU@HKU incubation mechanisms, and case studies of patents and spin-off startups. Only companies with verifiable technological or personnel links to HKU are included, to avoid misidentifying a business merely based in Hong Kong as an HKU spin-off.
HKU's Tradition in Virology and Microbiology: From Naming Pathogens to International Honours
HKU's virology tradition spans research platforms from the 1997 avian flu to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic — including SKLEID, HKU-Pasteur, and InnoHK — and features several newly discovered pathogens directly named after \"HKU\" or \"Hong Kong\". Kwok-Yung Yuen and Malik Peiris were awarded the Future Science Prize in 2021.
Placing Hong Kong on the World Liver Transplant Map: HKU’s Living Donor Liver Transplant Breakthroughs (from 1991)
The HKU surgical team performed Hong Kong’s first liver transplant in 1991 and pioneered adult right-lobe living donor transplantation in 1996, hailed as rewriting global practice. Queen Mary Hospital was designated the Liver Transplant Centre for Hong Kong in 2003, with over 1,100 cases completed and a five-year survival rate of about 85.8% by early 2016.
Sending HKU into Space — The Laboratory for Space Research (LSR) and Hong Kong's Satellites and Astrophysics
HKU's Laboratory for Space Research (LSR), founded in 2016 by Sun Kwok, is the University's sole interdisciplinary space science platform, spanning planetary science, astrophysics, and stellar evolution. It led the launch of HKU's first scientific satellite in 2020 and participates in the Chang'e-7 and Tianwen-3 missions.
11 Medicine Faculty · Hospitals
8 articlesMedicine- and health-related faculties and departments, teaching hospitals, and clinical practice.
Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine (Part I): 1887 – The Hong Kong College of Medicine and Sun Yat-sen's Student Years
Founded on 1 October 1887, the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese was Hong Kong's first Western medical school. In 1892, its first cohort produced only two graduates, with Sun Yat-sen leading the field with Honours in 10 out of 12 subjects. The college was renamed the Hong Kong College of Medicine in 1907 and merged into HKU as its founding medical faculty in 1912.
LKS Faculty of Medicine (Part 2): The Five-School Structure, the MBBS Programme, and the 2005–2006 Naming
The LKS Faculty of Medicine is now composed of five schools — Clinical Medicine, Public Health, Biomedical Sciences, Nursing, and Chinese Medicine — with a six-year MBBS as its undergraduate flagship. The Faculty was named the “Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine” on 1 January 2006 following a 2005 Council resolution, stemming from a HK$1 billion donation from the Li Ka Shing Foundation; the naming once gave rise to controversy.
Teaching Hospitals & Clinical Network: Queen Mary Hospital, HA-Affiliated Hospitals, and HKU–Shenzhen Hospital
HKUMed uses Queen Mary Hospital, opened in 1937, as its core teaching base, radiating to HA-affiliated hospitals like Grantham and Tung Wah and extending to the private Gleneagles Hospital and the joint-venture HKU–Shenzhen Hospital; Queen Mary has been Hong Kong's designated liver transplant centre since 2003.
Clinical Departments and Research Strengths: Liver Transplantation, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Cardiology, Oncology and Metabolism
Outlines the strengths of HKUMed's clinical departments: in surgery, Fan Sheung-tat and Lo Chung-mau pioneered adult-to-adult right lobe living donor liver transplantation, rewriting global surgical practice; in microbiology, Yuen Kwok-yung and Malik Peiris discovered multiple coronaviruses during the SARS and COVID-19 pandemics; also covers endocrinology and metabolism, oncology divisions, and the State Key Laboratory platform.
Faculty of Dentistry: Hong Kong’s Only Dental School
Established in 1982, HKU’s Faculty of Dentistry is Hong Kong’s only dental school, based at the Prince Philip Dental Hospital (opened 1981). It scored world No.1 in the QS Dentistry subject rankings for three years running (2016–2018) and has consistently remained in the top three since. The BDS programme admits around 90 students each year.
Public Health, Chinese Medicine, Nursing, and Biomedical Sciences
An overview of the four non-clinical schools within the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine: the School of Public Health established in 2004 and designated a WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control in 2014; the School of Chinese Medicine founded in 1998; the School of Nursing dating from the 1995 Department of Nursing Studies; and the School of Biomedical Sciences formed in 2015 through the merger of three departments.
HKU-Shenzhen Hospital as a \"test field\" for healthcare reform — package fees, \"GP before specialist\", and cross-border billing
Opened in 2012, HKU-Shenzhen Hospital was built by the Shenzhen municipal government with HKU support. It was the first Grade A tertiary hospital on the mainland to introduce a \"GP before specialist\" triage system and an approximately RMB 200 package fee, and the first to pilot cross-border billing of Hong Kong healthcare expenses.
The School of Nursing’s Arrival and Departure — The Suspension, Relaunch, and Professionalisation of Nursing Education at HKU
HKU’s School of Nursing was founded in 1995 as the Department of Nursing Studies, admitting 42 students in its first cohort; it was elevated to a school in 2010 and is now one of the five schools of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine; its research has been repeatedly ranked first among Hong Kong nursing institutions in the RAE, with a QS subject ranking of third in Asia in 2021.