CityU’s Council Chairman Mr Lester Garson Huang and President Way Kuo witnessed the ground-breaking ceremony together with management, staff and students. Non-local students staged lion dance performances, enjoying their first taste of this Chinese tradition.

In his speech, Mr Huang said the building will enable the students to broaden their perspectives and ultimately gain a deeper understanding of the world around them. "CityU has signaled to the world our drive to become a world-leading institution of higher education,” he said.

 

Meanwhile, President Kuo thanked members of CityU community for their contributions to the development of the University, supporting “multicultural environment and diversity for harmony”, as described in the CityU Anthem. “The new building symbolises our energy, and points us in the direction of the integration of teaching and research as a true global university,” he said.

CityU is with 70 percent of its faculty coming from 35 countries and regions around the world, and collaborates with more than 400 partners in 47 countries and regions on exchange activities. According to Stanford University’s rankings published in October, more than 170 highly cited CityU faculty members and researchers were ranked in the top 2% of scientists worldwide.

 

To nurture and develop the talents of students, CityU launched HK Tech 300, a large-scale flagship innovation and entrepreneurship programme in March this year, for aspiring entrepreneurs among CityU students, alumni, research staff and others to establish start-ups. As of now, over 1,000 people have participated in the entrepreneurship training, and a total of 152 start-up teams have each been awarded a seed fund of HK$100,000.