HKUST opens mainland campus amid education synergy

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology ( HKUST) will open a new campus in Guangzhou, South China’s Guangdong Province, which has recently gained approval from the Ministry of Education ( MOE). The move is expected to better integrate quality educational resources of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Chinese mainland, ahead of the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland.

Observers believe the synergy in education will not only cultivate more high- end talent for the mainland but will also help the Special Administrative Region transform and apply its advanced research capacity across more industries. The exchanges will also boost national identity recognition for youth in Hong Kong.

The new Guangzhou campus, cofounded by HKUST and the Guangzhou University, will begin its first semester on September 1. It is located in Nansha, south of Guangzhou, and is adjacent to the Qingsheng station on the high- speed Guangzhou- Shenzhen- Hong Kong Express Rail Link. It takes just 30 minutes to travel there from the Hong Kong West Kowloon railway station, making collaboration between the two campuses very convenient, the Global Times learned from the University’s official website on Wednesday.

The university will promote the reform of higher education in China, facilitate the integrated development of education between Hong Kong and the mainland, and serve the construction of the Guangdong- Hong Kong- Macao Greater Bay Area.

Lawrence Tang Fei, a member of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies, told the Global Times on Wednesday that Hong Kong and the mainland will supplement each other in a number of ways. For one thing, the advantageous educational resources in Hong Kong will be allocated to more mainland students after the new campus is set up, breaking the previous limitation that some 80 percent of student enrollment must be local Hong Kong residents.

The mainland, in return, can help apply the advanced research results to industries and businesses, as Hong Kong lacks the room and enterprises for such transformation while Guangdong has a well developed manufacturing industry, providing the soil for the transformation of scientific research results.