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The City Polytechnic of Hong Kong was established in 1984 and was granted university status in 1994, becoming the City University of Hong Kong. CityU's stated mission incorporates the following objectives:
To offer access to the University's human, physical and technological resources for the benefit of society.
The University places particular emphasis on professional education and practice, applied research and being responsive to local and regional needs.
In 1997-98, the University had 13,479 fte sub-degree, undergraduate and postgraduate students, some 790 academic staff members and 1,787 non academic staff. The University has three faculties - Business, Humanities and Social Sciences, Science and Engineering with 22 academic departments/divisions, the School of Law, the School of Creative Media, the School of Graduate Studies and the School of Continuing and Professional Education. The University also has a College of Higher Vocational Studies offering sub-degree and professional education.
The President is the chief executive officer. The principal sections of the University are Education, Research, Planning and Information Services, Institutional Advancement and Business and Finance (as shown in Figure 1 below). Each section is headed by a Vice President and has functional responsibility for particular areas of activity.
Figure 1: Management Structure of the City University of Hong Kong
The University's committee structure is presented in Figure 2 below. The three major elements are the external governance committees that report to the Council, the academic committees that report to the Senate and the administrative committees that report to the Management Board. The Management Board is a key committee and is described as the bridge between the Council and the Senate.
Figure 2: Committee Structure of the City University of Hong Kong
CityU has undergone a number of significant changes over the last few years including the introduction of new management structures and processes appropriate to a self-accrediting university. The Panel commends the University for its success to date in making these changes and the strong leadership and sense of collective team spirit which has made these possible. It was also pleased to observe high level of self-awareness within the University about its state of development. For example, the President identified the strong sense of ownership of the strategic plan as a key strength, but the over-emphasis on systems of control within parts of the University as a possible weakness. As a part of the review process, it considers the capacity of CityU to move forward in addressing any areas of weakness relating to management processes and makes some recommendations for further performance improvement.