22 June 2015

Dear alumni,

The University’s Strategic Plan 2015–2020 Making a Difference through Excellence in Research and Professional Education was approved by the Council in April. The Plan builds on the strong foundation created by the successful implementation of the Strategic Plan 2010–2015. It identifies priority areas and action plans to further elevate the academic excellence, international standing, and societal importance of CityU over the next five years. The Plan has already been uploaded to our website and you can read it here.

Student success has always been our core objective. One of the identified priority areas firmly embedded throughout the Plan is to further raise the international standard and global relevance of our professional education. The goal is to enhance the employability and career achievements of our graduates.

We are certainly building on past success. As we noted in the Plan, the employment rate of our graduates was close to 99%, according to our graduate exit survey in 2013. In particular, we saw increased success in job placements with multinational corporations. As mentioned in our previous communications, CityU made the world’s top 150 universities for the first time in the 2014 Global Employability University Ranking while the QS University Rankings: Asia 2015, released this month, put us among the top ten.

In terms of individual success stories, our alumni, Mr Eric Chen and Dr Chen Xueping won the prestigious 2015 Grand Prix at the 43rd International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva in April this year. The company they founded won this top international award for its innovative application of a CityU-developed technology for toxicology testing to commercial use, which enhances product safety and human health in a wide range of products. Their entry triumphed over 1,000 other inventions from 48 countries!

Another exciting success story was the recent appointment of our alumnus Mr Hectar Pun as Senior Counsel of Hong Kong. Mr. Pun is the first CityU law graduate to be appointed to such a prominent role, and his elevation reflects very strongly on the quality of legal education at CityU.

Earlier in March, we led a delegation to Tokyo and Beijing to strengthen our ties with our academic and industrial partners. We met many CityU graduates who are working in Japan and the mainland in different professions and leadership roles such as professor, engineer, marketing specialist, journalist, media artist and legal director. We were deeply impressed by their career success and their strong affiliation with CityU. Some took the whole day off to come to meet with us. We are all very grateful for their passion for their alma mater.

We also met some of our students who were in Beijing on exchange. They told us how their exchange experience had broadened their mindset and expanded their skill sets. Their feedback confirmed the positive value of CityU’s strategic approach to exchange initiatives for enhancing student learning and career opportunities.

CityU fully recognises that it is operating within an increasingly competitive and challenging global environment. To realise our ambitious goals in the Plan, CityU needs the concerted efforts of the entire campus community, as well as the strong support and active involvement of its different stakeholders, especially our alumni, industrial partners and employers.

You all have a meaningful role to play. With your support and contribution to our 2015–2020 Strategic Plan, we will surely make a real difference in the lives of our students and society over the next five year period.

Thank you,

Way Kuo
President and University Distinguished Professor
City University of Hong Kong
 

City Update
Way to Kuo Blog