Address by Professor Paul LAM Kwan-sing, President
27 August 2024
Welcome, everyone!
I am delighted to have the opportunity to participate in your orientation here at HKMU.
You are joining an enormously proud institution that has been at the forefront of higher education innovation for many years.
As we celebrate our 35th anniversary, I want to turn the spotlight on some of our milestone achievements and give you a stronger sense of who we are, what we do, and where we are going.
To begin at the beginning, the Open Learning Institute (OLI) was established in 1989 by the Hong Kong Government. The aim was to reach out to working adults who had not had the opportunity to attend one of the two universities in Hong Kong at the time.
OLI proved so popular that it was not uncommon to see hopeful candidates queuing up to collect the application forms. The next major step occurred in 1996 when OLI was awarded self-accrediting status, meaning it had the authority to award its own degrees.
To date, only nine universities in Hong Kong have secured selfaccrediting status: the eight UGC-funded universities and HKMU.
Our name changed to The Open University of Hong Kong in 1997, reflecting our growing status as a provider of high-quality degree programmes.
Since then, OUHK has been nurturing training, supporting and caring for secondary school graduates like any other UGC-funded university in Hong Kong.
Now, as Hong Kong’s sixth largest university, our flexible approach to higher education means we can quickly design and implement high-quality professional programmes in direct response to market trends and industry needs.
The Government has previously noted that Hong Kong is experiencing an acute shortage of high-calibre talent in many technical and professional sectors.
This lack of appropriately qualified professionals poses a challenge to Hong Kong’s social and economic development.
To address this shortage of human resources, the Chief Executive announced the establishment of a new category of university, the University of Applied Sciences, or UAS, in his 2023 Policy Address.
We are delighted that HKMU was designated as Hong Kong’s first UAS on 21 March 2024. To date, we are still the only UAS in Hong Kong.
As a UAS, we offer a vast range of career-focused degree programmes, such as our Bachelor of Business Administration with Honours in Aviation Services Management, which now includes a new “Cadet Pilot” concentration; our Bachelor of Business Administration with Honours in Real Estate and Surveying; and our Master of Applied Science / Master of Science in Intelligent Construction & Building Information Modeling.
To provide more facilities to our students, HKMU recently purchased a brand-new hotel in Hung Hom that will be used as student accommodation. This new facility, called “MU88”, has 250 rooms and can accommodate over 450 students.
Meanwhile, the construction of our new campus, the Hub for Community Health and Wellness, will commence in early 2025 and it is expected to be completed in 2028.
These are just some of the exciting new HKMU initiatives that are taking place.
And so, as you start your new chapter with us here at HKMU, be proud that you are joining a highly respected institution.
One that is going from strength to strength, and one that will work with you side by side throughout your time at HKMU.
Welcome again, and thank you very much.
