Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU) was awarded a grant worth over HK$37 million from the “Enhancement and Start-up Grant Scheme for Self-financing Post-secondary Education” (ESGS) of the Education Bureau (EDB) to set up an Industrial Centre for new industrialisation, develop a new programme and enhance the existing programmes. HKMU President Prof. Paul Lam Kwan-sing said he believed that the establishment of the Industrial Centre would complement the Government's policy of promoting “New Industrialisation” and help nurture talent for industry.
Prof. Lam said, “Three consecutive years of being granted Government funding demonstrates the Government's support for and affirmation of the University's progress in offering programmes with strong demand and distinctive features.” He said that the funding received this year would help promote new industrialisation and competitiveness in Hong Kong.
HKMU's School of Science and Technology offers a wide range of engineering and information technology programmes, with venues provided by partner organisations and institutions for related industry training. In view of the increasing demand for related training, HKMU will leverage the grant to establish an Industrial Centre equipped with market-standard facilities to provide quality training for students.
HKMU will launch a brand-new programme on the Bachelor of Engineering with Honours in Building Engineering to train building engineers. It will emphasise teaching the technology of intelligent construction, and will equip students with skills for applying innovative and advanced building technologies in construction projects.
To support the development of the new programme, the Industrial Centre will feature an Intelligent Construction Technologies Facility to provide students with hands-on experience and help them acquire knowledge about advanced intelligent building technologies. The facility will strengthen the existing training for programmes in Building Services Engineering and Sustainable Development, and Civil Engineering.
The Industrial Centre will set up an Internet of Things (IoT) and Web3 Facility to support the teaching of new industrialisation concepts, such as IoT, wireless sensor networks, cyber security, artificial intelligence and data analytics. The Centre will also have a Robotics and Automation Facility to meet demand for robotic technologies in the new industrialisation. These facilities will substantially enhance the training for programmes in Electronic and Computer Engineering, Cyber and Computer Security, and Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. The completion of the Industrial Centre is expected to help facilitate training for students from HKMU and other self-financing institutions in Hong Kong, thus catering for the needs of industry.
There are also plans to establish a Makerspace in the Industrial Centre to offer a conducive environment for students to transform their creative ideas into prototypes, thus fostering their problem-solving skills and entrepreneurship mindset.
In the past two years, HKMU received substantial funding from the EDB to develop new programmes, including a total of HK$73 million in 2021/22 to launch the Bachelor of Science with Honours in Construction Management and Quantity Surveying and the Bachelor of Arts with Honours in New Music and Interactive Entertainment; and another HK$40 million in 2020/21 to launch the Bachelor of Science with Honours in Medical Laboratory Science.
