CityU Key Facts, Figures and Distinctiveness

On Tat Chee Avenue, a short street in Kowloon Tong, sits a university whose name people regularly get wrong. It is not the University of Hong Kong, nor its neighbour PolyU — it is City University of Hong Kong, which started life as a polytechnic and, four decades later, was named the "most international university in the world" by Times Higher Education. This fact sheet distils its name, identity, campus and governance into a quick-reference card; the figures draw on CityU's official CityUHK at a Glance and recent public statistics, with leadership and rankings current as of 2026. Each item is sourced where possible, and expanded treatment lives in the rest of this module (Historical statistics and scale, Firsts and superlatives, What makes CityU CityU, History timeline, Governance structure, Symbols and identity).

# 1. Name

The University has in recent years standardised its official English abbreviation from CityU to CityUHK (to distinguish itself from mainland Chinese and other "City Universities"), but the cityu.edu.hk domain, older branding and general usage still widely employ CityU. This site uses "城大 / CityUHK / CityU" interchangeably throughout; they all refer to the same university.

# 2. Identity and positioning

# 3. Campus

# 4. Governance and leadership (as of June 2026)

The presidency has been in transition since April 2026; the University says it will launch a global search "in the short term" to identify a successor. Full list of presidents (from founding principal to date) and detailed governance arrangements: governance-structure-and-presidents.md.

# 5. Academic structure at a glance

CityU's website lists 11 colleges and schools^※:

Six colleges:

1. College of Business
2. College of Engineering
3. College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
4. College of Science
5. College of Computing
6. College of Biomedicine

Specialist college (standalone): 7. Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences (JCC)

Four schools: 8. School of Creative Media (SCM) 9. School of Energy and Environment (SEE) 10. School of Law 11. Chow Yei Ching School of Graduate Studies

The structure has shifted in recent years: the College of Computing was formed in 2024^※ by merging the former School of Data Science with the Department of Computer Science; the College of Biomedicine is also newly established. Full three-level documentation of colleges, departments and programmes: 01-academics/.

# 6. Alliances and funding status

• UGC-funded institution
• Participant in the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (JUPAS)
• Long-term partner of Cornell University (US) in veterinary education (see the dedicated veterinary school file)

# 7. Highlights and distinctions

• Hong Kong's only veterinary school: the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences offers Hong Kong's first and only Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine programme (first cohort admitted 2017^※).
• Most international university in the world: Times Higher Education (THE) has ranked CityU the world's most international university^※, and it has held the title for three consecutive years, 2024–2026^※.
• International faculty: around 70%^※ of academics are international, from over 40 countries/regions; students come from over 90^※ nationalities.
• Patents: first in Hong Kong, eighth in Asia^※ among the world's top 100 universities granted US patents (2025).
• Pioneer in creative media: the School of Creative Media was founded in 1998^※, among the earliest such schools in the region.

# 8. World rankings snapshot (latest available)

Rankings use different methodologies and shift from year to year; detailed year-by-year trends and subject strengths: 03-rankings/ module.