On 13 April, the Beijing – Hong Kong Universities Alliance (BHUA) was officially launched to forge strong ties among universities in Beijing and Hong Kong.
Led by Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and Peking University, the Alliance is jointly initiated by multiple universities in Beijing and Hong Kong. It will serve as a high-level platform to deepen institutional cooperation in talents nurturing and scientific research, enhancing the quality of higher education in
two cities and contributing to the national development and global growth.
The 12 Beijing institutions attending the ceremony today are: Peking University, Beihang University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing University of Technology, Capital Medical University, Capital Normal University, Capital University of Economics and Business, Renmin University of China, Tsinghua University and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The 8 attending institutions from Hong Kong are: The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, Lingnan University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Education University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and The University of Hong Kong.
Representatives from Hong Kong and Chinese Governments, as well as university leaders from Hong Kong and Beijing, attended the launching ceremony held at HKUST. Officiating guests included Chinese Minister of Education Mr Chen Baosheng, Deputy Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in Hong Kong SAR Prof Tan Tieniu, Director-General of Beijing Municipal Education Commission Dr Liu Yuhui, and Hong Kong Secretary for Education Mr Kevin Yeung.
This year, the Alliance will hold sessions including a President’s Forum in the Beijing-Hong Kong Economic Cooperation Symposium to extend such high-level exchange to the higher education sector of the two places. The Symposium is a major event that promotes business cooperation between Beijing and Hong Kong since
1997.
Prof Tan Tieniu, Deputy Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in Hong Kong SAR said he is delighted to see the formal establishment of the alliance – a high-level collaboration among major universities from Beijing and Hong Kong, which he believed will contribute to the merging of Hong Kong into the nation’s development strategy – such as the One Belt One Road initiative.
Mr Kevin Yeung, Hong Kong Secretary for Education, said his bureau has always been supportive of the strengthening of collaboration among Hong Kong, Mainland and overseas universities. He added that Hong Kong’s higher education sector has earned high acclaims in the global arena with its excellence in many areas and he hoped our local universities would scale new heights through collaboration with top-notch universities in Mainland China.
HKUST is the coordinating university of the Hong Kong participants in the Alliance. Prof Wei Shyy, Acting President of HKUST said the alliance encourages and facilitates universities of Beijing and Hong Kong to learn from and collaborate with each other.
“It (the Alliance) can substantially help us keep abreast of the development of Mainland China, while offering our Beijing partners more insight into Hong Kong universities’ well-established international standing. Together, we can capitalize on the new opportunities regionally and globally and further advance our performance in education, research and knowledge transfer,” he said.
The launch came after a meeting in Beijing last June between a delegation led by the Hong Kong Education Bureau comprising leaders of Hong Kong universities, and officials of the Ministry of Education and the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, as well as representatives from Beijing universities.
Attendees believed the partnership will not only facilitate exchange of ideas, innovation and technology between the two cities, it will also foster institutional and student cooperation, as well as synergy among the alliance members through sharing of resources. Participating institutions, for example, could have access to library resources and research facilities at other member universities.
Meanwhile, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau University Alliance, launched in 2016, has taken forward collaborations such as a co-operation agreement signed last June to facilitate exchanges and sharing of resources among the libraries of the leading universities of the three places.
