HKUST 2006-2007 Annual Report
61
F
rom day one, HKUST has oriented itself as a global university. Faculty
members are drawn from leading universities around the world and research
standards are benchmarked against top global institutions.
Students are provided with wide cultural experience through exchange programs
while our student body has become increasingly diversified. This has resulted in
a growing awareness of cultural diversity, which better equips students for life
in a global society. The campus is alive with activities driven by the International
and Mainland Students and Programs Office which testify to the success of the
internationalization initiative.
Our internationalisation efforts go further than international student admissions
to include student and faculty exchanges, international competitions, joint
degree programs and projects with overseas institutions, cultural exchange
programs, and overseas field trips.
We continue to seek out the best non-local students for full-time study. Our
longer-term aim is to raise their number to 20% of the undergraduate intake.
For the first time, this year the University received students from Mexico,
Myanmar, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sweden and
Switzerland. We held overseas recruitment sessions in Mainland China,
Germany, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Scandinavian countries, all with the aim of
further internationalising our student population. Working together with other
tertiary education institutions in Hong Kong, we helped launch a website aiming
to promote Hong Kong as an education hub.
We also offer scholarships to attract the brightest young minds from around the
world, ranging from one-time awards to full-tuition awards covering tuition and
living expenses for the duration of a student’s studies.
One of the biggest scholarships is the Swire International Young Fellows
Program, a scholarship scheme inaugurated in August 2005 and supported
by the Swire Group Charitable Trust. This year, six new full-time international
undergraduate students were successful recipients, chosen for their academic
excellence, well-roundedness, and international outlook. The program also
makes possible exchanges to leading overseas institutions for outstanding
local students.
