CityU's "Firsts" and Record-Breaking Claims

A university barely into its forties needs more than seniority to hold its own among Hong Kong's crowded field of established institutions — it needs a few tricks nobody else has. CityU's two most bankable calling cards are the territory's only veterinary school, and a three-year unbroken run as the world's most international university. This article gathers City University of Hong Kong's claims to "firsts" and records, noting the frame of reference (territory-wide / regional / global) and the source for each item, so as to avoid vague marketing language; preference is given to items backed by primary sources or corroborated from multiple angles. For the basic facts, see general-facts.md; for a portrait of the University's overall character and identity, see campus-character-and-identity.md.

# I. The Territory's Only Veterinary School ★ A First

CityU's Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences (JCC) is the University's most distinctive asset:

• It offers Hong Kong's first and only Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine programme (per the JCC College page^※).
• The curriculum is modelled on that of Cornell University in the United States, with cooperation with Cornell dating back 2009^※.
• Timeline: the College of Veterinary Medicine was established in 2014^※ → the Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine programme launched in 2016^※ → the first cohort enrolled in 2017^※ → the College was named after a donation from the Hong Kong Jockey Club in 2018^※.
• CityU also states as its institutional goal "the creation of Hong Kong's first veterinary college and Asia's first internationally accredited veterinary college" (per the University's own framing).

# II. The World's Most International University ★ Three Years Running

• Times Higher Education (THE) publishes an annual "Most International Universities in the World" ranking, assessed on four indicators: international students, international staff, international co-authorship, and international reputation.
• CityU first took the top spot in 2024^※ and has retained it for three consecutive years, 2024, 2025 and 2026^※, completing a three-peat.
• The data underneath: around 70%^※ of academic staff are international, students come from more than 90 nationalities^※, and there is a high rate of internationally co-authored research.
• A point of caution on scope: the "three-peat" above refers to THE's standalone Most International Universities in the World ranking. On the "International Outlook" pillar within THE's main World University Rankings, CityU has been first in Hong Kong for eight consecutive years^※ — a different ranking, but one that corroborates the same conclusion.

This is CityU's most high-profile global record in recent years: on the single dimension of "internationalisation", CityU beats numerous world-famous universities with far longer histories and higher overall rankings.

# III. A Pioneer in Creative Media ★ Among the First in the Region

• The School of Creative Media (SCM), established in 1998^※, was one of the earliest schools of its kind in Hong Kong and the wider region to fuse art, technology and media.
• The School is known for interdisciplinary creative-media education and production. Its Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, opened in 2011^※ and designed by Daniel Libeskind, has become a CityU landmark.

# IV. Patent Output ★ First in Hong Kong

• In the ranking of universities worldwide with the most US patents granted, CityU is first in Hong Kong and eighth in Asia^※ (2025).
• On citations per faculty, CityU ranks second globally and first in Asia in QS 2026^※.

"First in Hong Kong for patents + first in Asia for citations per faculty" together underpin CityU's self-image as an "application-oriented, high-output research university", and sit comfortably with its disciplinary emphasis on engineering, materials and the sciences.

# V. Top of the Young-University Table ★ Rankings

• In THE's Young University Rankings, CityU has reached 4th place globally^※ (2024), putting it among the very best of the world's universities founded within the last fifty years.

The Young University Rankings are designed specifically for universities with short histories (typically founded within 50 years). CityU, established in 1984, performs strongly on this table, confirming its trajectory of "late start, fast rise".

# VI. The Sharpest Leap in Overall Rankings ★ Records Broken Across Multiple Tables

In the single 2025–2026 assessment cycle, CityU set a string of new institutional records across the four major world-university ranking systems, at a density rarely seen in the University's history (for detailed trends on each table and methodological critique, see ../03-rankings/world-rankings.md):

• ShanghaiRanking's ARWU: entered the global top 100 for the first time in 2025^※ (99th place), making it the second Hong Kong university ever to reach the global top 100 since the ranking's inception in 2003; CityU also ranked first in Hong Kong on the table's "Per Capita Performance" indicator.
• QS Asia University Rankings: rose to 7th in Asia and 3rd in Hong Kong in 2026^※ (up three places from 10th in 2025), ranking first in Asia on the three indicators of "international faculty", "inbound exchange students" and "outbound exchange students", scoring full marks on a further five indicators, and taking the "Learning Experience" and "Research Discovery" awards at the ceremony — the most of any Hong Kong institution.
• THE World University Rankings: rose to 75th globally in 2026, a new institutional high^※, including a perfect score on the "Industry" pillar for three consecutive years, first in the world.
• QS World University Rankings: leapt to 52nd globally in 2027^※, with "citations per faculty" ranked second worldwide, behind only Harvard.

# VII. Subject-Ranking Highs ★ Three Subjects in the Global Top Ten

In the ShanghaiRanking Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) 2025^※, CityU placed 27 subjects in the global top 100 (out of 42 subjects assessed), among which:

• Library & Information Science, Public Administration, and Automation & Control all made the global top ten — the highest positions CityU has achieved on a single-subject basis.
• A further 12 subjects ranked first in Hong Kong: in addition to the three above, these are Nanoscience & Nanotechnology, Metallurgical Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering, Business Administration, Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Veterinary Science, and Agricultural Science.
• In Materials Science, CityU is ranked first in Hong Kong across all three subject tables — QS, ShanghaiRanking and U.S. News — a clean "grand slam" (details in ../03-rankings/subject-rankings.md).

The value of subject rankings lies in escaping the scale effect that masks performance in overall rankings — CityU is small, and cannot beat HKU or CUHK on overall tables once all subjects are averaged together. But disaggregate to individual disciplines, and the University's flagship subjects — materials science, veterinary science, library & information science — often rank considerably higher worldwide than the institution's overall position. That is the "small but specialised" strategy made visible in data.

# VIII. The Bigger End of Start-up Incubation ★ Among the Largest Such Schemes at Any Hong Kong University

CityU's flagship entrepreneurship programme HK Tech 300, launched in 2021^※, is one of the larger start-up incubation schemes at a local institution:

• To date it has trained more than 2,000 founders and incubated more than 1,000 start-ups, with over 220 start-ups receiving angel or venture funding (per the programme's official site^※, as of 2026).
• Funding comes in four tiers: HK$10,000 per team at the training stage → HK$100,000 in seed funding → up to HK$1 million in angel funding → up to HK$10 million combined with external partners.
• The programme has been extended to 12 mainland Chinese cities^※, in the form of the "HK Tech 300 National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Ten-Million Competition", making it one of the main channels for transferring CityU research output across the border (the full chain from patents and licensing to start-ups is covered in ../04-research/output-and-startups.md).
• Representative cases: Huang Yuanhao, founder of 3D-vision company Orbbec, is a CityU doctoral alumnus, and his company was listed as a "China unicorn enterprise" in 2017 by the Ministry of Science and Technology^※; genetic-testing firm Prenetics (listed on the US NASDAQ) is a spin-off from postdoctoral research in CityU's molecular biology laboratories.

# IX. Governance and People "Records"

• Longest-serving President: fourth President Way Kuo served 2008–2023, a total of fifteen years^※, the longest tenure of any CityU president.
• Upgraded from polytechnic status: CityU, together with HKBU and PolyU, was granted university title in 1994^※ after having been a polytechnic/college — part of Hong Kong's 1990s wave of "polytechnic → university" promotions.

# X. Records at a Glance

# XI. "Firsts and Records" Newly Added in Recent Years

As research has deepened, this museum has added several more "firsts/records" established in recent years with reliable sourcing (each cross-referenced to the corresponding in-depth article on this site):

• Asia's first dual-accredited veterinary undergraduate degree: CityU's Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (BVM) is accredited by both the UK's RCVS and Australia's AVBC — according to CityU, the first veterinary undergraduate programme in Asia to be accredited by both major regulators. The first 11 graduates were registered to practise in 2023, becoming Hong Kong's first locally trained veterinary surgeons^※ (see ../11-medical-hospital/).
• Hong Kong's first School of Energy and Environment: the School of Energy and Environment (SEE), established in 2009, is to public knowledge the first specialist school of its kind in Hong Kong (see ../01-academics/).
• The region's first standalone School of Data Science: CityU established a School of Data Science in 2018, to public knowledge the first freestanding data-science school in the region (the School was integrated into the College of Computing in 2024; see ../01-academics/).
• Greater China's first triple-crown business school: CityU's College of Business completed the three accreditations — AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA — in 2008, according to the University the first in Greater China to do so (see ../01-academics/business-school-triple-crown.md).
• One of only three PCLL-awarding institutions: the School of Law is one of only three institutions in Hong Kong authorised to offer the Postgraduate Certificate in Laws, the essential qualification for legal practice.
• The only Hong Kong university in the global top 100 for US patents: first in Hong Kong for nine consecutive years (2016–2024), and the only local institution in the global top 100^※ (see ../04-research/).