The Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) announced the appointment of Prof. Ricky Kwok Yu-Kwong as Vice President (Students & Support) with effect from 1 February 2021.

Prof. Kwok obtained his B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and subsequently M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees, both in Computer Science, from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He is a Fellow of various professional bodies including the Hong Kong Institute of Engineers (HKIE), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) of USA, and Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) of UK. Besides, he is also a Senior Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) of USA.

Prof. Kwok started his academic career in HKU and was promoted to Professor in 2010. He is a seasoned academic researcher and administrator, and has been actively involved in various administrative, educational and technology enrichment projects. He was appointed as the Deputy Head of Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering between 2012 and 2014, and Associate Dean (Special Projects) of Faculty of Engineering in 2015. From 2015 to 2019, he served as the Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning), assisting the Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning) of HKU in various technology-enriched learning initiatives such as blended courses, educational games/apps, learning platforms, Asian e-Table symposium, flipped classroom symposium, etc.

As an academic, Prof. Kwok’s research focus has been on designing efficient communication protocols and robust resources management algorithms toward enabling large scale distributed mobile computing. He has widely engaged in research, and has authored one textbook, co-authored another two textbooks, and published more than 200 technical papers in various leading journals, research books, and refereed international conference proceedings. He has also received a number of research awards such as the Outstanding Young Researcher Award from HKU in 2004 and the Outstanding Reviewer Service Award for IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (TPDS) All-Time Most Prolific Reviewer from the IEEE Computer Society in 2013.

President Prof. Yuk-Shan Wong welcomes Prof. Ricky Kwok Yu-Kwong to join the University, “We are thrilled to have Prof. Ricky Kwok Yu-Kwong as the Vice President (Students & Support). I am confident that his rich knowledge, ample experience and superb leadership will energize the OUHK to a new level of achievement.”

About the OUHK:
Established by the Government in 1989, The Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) has developed into a full-fledged university providing high quality and flexible university education at various levels to secondary school graduates and working adults. As a dynamic and innovative university, the OUHK currently offers programmes of different academic levels to about 10,000 full-time students and 9,000 part-time students. Our mission is to advance learning, knowledge and research that meet students’ learning aspirations and society's talent needs, focusing on practical and professional programmes.

OUHK comprises six Schools, i.e. School of Arts and Social Sciences, Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration, School of Education and Languages, School of Nursing and Health Studies, School of Science and Technology, and Li Ka Shing School of Professional and Continuing Education (LiPACE). LiPACE provides lifelong learning opportunities by offering full-time sub-degree programmes, community learning and professional programmes.

OUHK website: www.hkmu.edu.hk.