HKUST officials said that construction of its Medical Education and Research Complex — the core interim facility at the Clear Water Bay campus for its new school of medicine — is ahead of schedule.
Updating the media on progress for the city’s third medical school, HKUST officials said the eight-storey building topped out last week, less than six months after its groundbreaking.
Dean King Li said the school had also made encouraging progress in faculty recruitment, securing candidates for various key roles.
The school aims to have at least 100 professors by 2030 to maintain a 1:1 teacher-student ratio, he said.
Li noted that the ratio of local to overseas professors is expected to be fairly even.
“It’s a process, so we want to choose the best candidates instead of where they come from. As time goes on, you will see that more and more global people will show up,” he said.
“In the beginning, it would seem like it’s geared towards the locals, because [it’s] easier [for them] to join, but the actual ratio of applicants is not skewed that much that way. It’s fairly even, I would say, at this time.”
One of the newly recruited faculty members is Anskar Leung, a former vice-dean at the University of Hong Kong’s medical faculty.
HKUST President, Professor Nancy Ip, stressed that the school had not engaged in any talent-poaching from other medical schools, but noted that they have received plenty of interest.
“When HKUST indicated its interest to establish the third medical school in Hong Kong, even before the selection process, we received a lot of enquiries already from interested faculty candidates, both locally and overseas,” she said.
“So I think they share our vision. They would very much like to participate in the founding stage to set up the new medical school.”
Leung, who has already assumed his new role as Senior Associate Dean of Medicine at HKUST, said he shared the school’s vision and described the opportunity as a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
He added that he resigned from HKU about four months ago.
HKUST also said it remains confident it would meet its target in admitting the first cohort of 50 students in the 2028/2029 academic year.
