24 June 2020

Dear alumni,

I am delighted to share with you that our Strategic Plan 2020–2025: World-class Research and Education, the newly launched vision for CityU’s future development, will further establish our identity as a world-class university. Our track record of moving from 108th in the QS World University Rankings for 2015 to 48th in 2021 confirms CityU’s well-earned regional and international reputation, and our readiness to pursue world-class research and education.

Our Strategic Plan’s five themes stand as our response to the rapid transformation of the economic, societal, and technological landscape in recent years. These themes are education and student development; research and knowledge transfer; faculty and staff advancement; campus growth and sustainability; and global identity and university advancement.

Five key interdisciplinary research areas have been defined, too: One Health, Digital Society, Smart City, Matter, and Brain. The Plan outlines an integrated, cutting-edge curriculum designed to nurture the next generation of professionals and transform students into creative global citizens capable of solving problems efficiently, communicating effectively, and leading from the front. 

The new Plan is the outcome of collective wisdom collected through consultations with the University community and stakeholders between May and October 2019. I appreciate the continuous support from alumni to advance our development. 

As a forward-looking institution, CityU executed a very prompt and bold decision to adopt an interactive online learning mode “CityU-Learning” at the start of the unprecedented outbreak of Covid-19 in early 2020. Leveraging the innovative CityU-Learning platform, we launched BOLD@CityU to expand online learning to secondary school students. BOLD stands for “Be Original, Leading Discovery”, and the initiative showcases CityU’s tremendous creativity in nurturing talent for future generations. At an inaugural talk that I hosted on 30 April, I discussed how data science can drive the management of societal health, which is especially timely during the pandemic. 

Since the pandemic has severely disrupted global economies and the job market, an array of programmes for enhancing the employability of our graduating students was launched. The initiatives include career coaching, executive mentoring in collaboration with industry partners and a Career Launch Scheme that reaches out to employers and alumni about job opportunities for our graduating students, to name but a few. The support from alumni on these endeavours is greatly appreciated. 

Among the graduating students, one who will be dearly missed is Hung Mei-ki (Kiki). I visited her in hospital on 16 May and presented a graduation certificate and the Honour Cord for distinguished graduates to Kiki’s mother on Kiki’s behalf. Suffering from myofibrillar myopathy, Kiki was admitted to CityU in 2016 to study linguistics and translation. Despite her illness, Kiki had worked very hard until the end of this semester and submitted her graduation thesis early, before she was admitted into intensive care. She passed away a week after my visit. Her spirit of persistence and her striving for excellence will be remembered always, and will continue to inspire others.  

Life may not be perfect, but the will is infinite.

Way Kuo
President and University Distinguished Professor

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