Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou): To build the world’s first integrated university

At the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), if you ask students what major they study, most of them will ponder for a while and then reply: "We don't have majors, only academic fields." Not only do we not have traditional majors, we also have no traditional departments.

How do students learn? Wang Wenrui, a second-year graduate student in Red Bird’s master’s class, comes from the field of intelligent manufacturing and is currently participating in a functional artificial skin construction project for personalized medicine. She told reporters that the school promotes interdisciplinary training and encourages students to be project-driven. "We have hundreds of projects. You can also propose what you want to do and then find a teacher to form a team. It is a very free state." Wang Wenrui said. However, freedom is not unlimited. Before the start of school, she researched the projects she wanted to participate in and selected the ones she needed to master from many courses, such as artificial materials, biomedical engineering, 3D printer manufacturing, etc., and then communicated with her instructor to determine whether the chosen course was suitable.

This is exactly the characteristic of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou). The school is the first mainland-Hong Kong cooperative education institution with independent legal personality to be approved after the promulgation and implementation of the "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Development Plan". It was established in 2022. Talking about the relationship with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, President Ni Mingxuan said that the two universities share brands and adhere to academic standards. Large-scale research facilities and laboratories are open to each other, and students can exchange and study. "But we don't want to simply copy HKUST to Guangzhou, but are thinking about what kind of university the country needs. Everyone knows that interdisciplinary subjects are important, but it is difficult to implement them, so we are committed to building the world's first integrated subject university." Ni Mingxuan introduced that the school has built four major hubs - functional hub, information hub, system hub and social hub, covering 16 academic fields such as advanced materials and artificial intelligence. Undergraduate students receive general education in the first two years of admission, and then determine their major after two years.

Looking out of the window, several white buildings full of technology are connected by corridors on the second floor. The laboratories, classrooms and teachers' offices are blended together, looking from the outside like small companies. Walking around the campus, you can feel the strong entrepreneurial atmosphere.

Not long ago, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) just held the fourth INNOTECH Innovation and Technology Carnival, which brought together more than 150 top science and technology innovation projects, more than 900 investment institutions and industry leaders, and attracted more than 3,300 guests from all walks of life. "In the past two or three years, we have incubated 260 projects and registered 150 companies. The total financing of these companies has exceeded 800 million yuan, and their valuation has exceeded 6.5 billion yuan." Ni Mingxuan told reporters, "If we look at it next month, the data will be different again."

In the knowledge transfer of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), the characteristic of "teachers and students come together, and students take the lead" is particularly distinctive. The "Entrepreneurship Bridge" program launched by the school has extensively attracted the entrepreneurial strength of the school and has attracted more than a hundred students and faculty to participate. Among them, graduates and current students of the Red Bird Master's Program are the core force.

"We are working hard to build the area around Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) into the Silicon Valley of the Greater Bay Area." Ni Mingxuan said that the school will gather industrial strength through multiple methods such as setting up joint laboratories and carrying out cooperation projects, build bridges between domestic and foreign companies and our teachers, promote the transformation of scientific research results, and create more opportunities with teachers and students.