The College of Biomedicine and the boundary of CityUHK having no human-medicine faculty (new in 2025)

This article belongs to Module 11 "Medicine/Hospitals" (Part II) of the unofficial history of City University of Hong Kong. CityUHK does not have a human-medicine faculty. Its institutional presence on the "human health" side is the College of Biomedicine, established in January 2025 — a research-focused school of life and health sciences that does not train clinicians (no MBBS/MBChB). This article examines the College's structure, departments, programmes and research directions, and sets out the boundary that CityUHK has "no human-medicine faculty and no Chinese-medicine degrees". CityUHK's veterinary establishment (Hong Kong's only veterinary school) is covered in veterinary-college.md; the "One Health" policy centre for CityUHK's public-health outreach appears in the companion piece biomedical-and-health-sciences-2.md.

Data current as of June 2026; any claim with a year or figure is sourced in place. Differences between the College's Chinese and English names are noted in place.

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# 1. Overview

The College of Biomedicine is part of CityUHK's recent "academic restructuring". Following the new College of Computing in September 2024, in January 2025 the University consolidated and elevated the biomedical capabilities scattered across its existing faculties into a standalone college, aligned with Hong Kong's policy drive to become an "international hub for healthcare and medical innovation".

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# 2. Establishment: the January 2025 "elevation"

# 2.1 Operational from New Year's Day

According to CityUHK's press release (2025-01-02)^※, the College of Biomedicine became operational on 1 January 2025, starting with three departments: Biomedical Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, and Neuroscience. The College aims to "address pressing challenges in life and health sciences through interdisciplinary collaboration" and to pursue "cutting-edge research in life sciences and health technologies".

Hong Kong's Chinese-language media covered the launch as well. Per Wen Wei Po (2025-01-02)^※, the College's Chinese name is "生物医学学院", the English name College of Biomedicine, and it "became operational yesterday", aiming to "leverage CityUHK's research strengths in biological sciences, bioscience engineering, neuroscience and digital medicine" to address life and health science issues through breakthrough interdisciplinary research.

# 2.2 Policy background: plugging into Hong Kong's healthcare innovation hub

Per the CityUHK press release, the College's establishment dovetails with Hong Kong's initiative to become an "international healthcare and medical innovation hub", with one goal being to attract international pharmaceutical and medical-device companies to conduct R&D and clinical trials in the city. In other words, the College's strategic positioning leans toward "research + industrial translation" rather than "clinical training of doctors".

# 2.3 The founding Dean

According to CityUHK and multiple press reports, the College's founding Dean is a distinguished visiting professor in its Department of Biomedical Engineering, effective March 2025, whose research concerns viral membrane proteins. Following this archive's convention, incumbent college leadership is referred to primarily by title; biographical profiles of named individuals belong in Module 06 "People".

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# 3. The three departments and their research directions

The College of Biomedicine comprises three departments, each with its own emphasis.

# 3.1 Department of Biomedical Sciences

The Department of Biomedical Sciences did not begin in 2025 — per its departmental overview^※, it was established as early as January 2014 to develop strategic growth areas in the life sciences. It positions itself as "a leading centre for biomedical education and cutting-edge research", with research focused on cancer, neuroscience and regenerative medicine; laboratory facilities include electrophysiology and in vivo imaging, among others.

Undergraduate and postgraduate offerings include: BSc Biological Sciences, BSc Biomedical Sciences, MSc Health Sciences and Management, and MPhil/PhD research degrees. The BSc Biomedical Sciences offers streams such as clinical chemistry, haematology, microbiology and pathology, with clinical or industry placements — this is the strand of CityUHK's health-related undergraduate training closest to clinical laboratory science / medical laboratory work.

# 3.2 Department of Biomedical Engineering

The Department of Biomedical Engineering concentrates on engineering-oriented directions: medical devices, biomaterials, medical imaging, wearable and diagnostic/therapeutic technologies. It sits at the intersection of CityUHK's engineering tradition and health technology. The College's undergraduate portfolio includes the BEng in Biomedical Engineering (BEngBME). CityUHK performs strongly in sustainability and biomedical engineering research (see Module 04 "Research").

# 3.3 Department of Neuroscience

The Department of Neuroscience is the most conspicuously "new" of the College's three departments, mirroring the College's elevation of neuroscience to one of its four research pillars (biomedical sciences / biomedical engineering / neuroscience / digital medicine). Neuroscience research spans the molecular, cellular, systems and behavioural levels, complementing the electrophysiology and in vivo imaging facilities in Biomedical Sciences.

Together, the three departments give the College of Biomedicine coverage of a chain running "molecule — cell — device — neural — digital", from basic to translational science, from biology to engineering. Its output is papers, patents, technologies and talent — not clinical consultations.

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# 4. Undergraduate programmes: Bio³ and the health-related degrees

Per the College of Biomedicine website^※, the College's undergraduate programmes include:

• Integrative Bioscience & Bioengineering Programme (Bio³) — the College's flagship, interdisciplinary programme;
• BSc Biomedical Sciences (BScBMS);
• BSc Biological Sciences (BScBISI);
• BEng in Biomedical Engineering (BEngBME).

The website also mentions research in frontier areas such as genome editing / CRISPR. Together, these programmes and research directions form the undergraduate foundation of CityUHK's "health-related" education — but note: they train biomedical scientists and engineers, not practising doctors.

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# 5. CityUHK has no human-medicine faculty: a boundary note

In most comprehensive universities' "Medicine/Hospitals" modules, this slot is filled with "medical faculty structure × teaching hospitals × clinical department strengths × Chinese medicine". City University of Hong Kong, however, has no human-medicine faculty.

# 5.1 The conclusion in one sentence

CityUHK has no human-medicine faculty: it offers no Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS / MBChB) programme for Western medicine, operates no public or private human teaching hospital of its own, and offers no Chinese-medicine degree. In this it differs fundamentally from the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (and, in recent years, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which is building a medical school).

The academic structure CityUHK officially publishes is "11 Colleges and Schools^※" (Business, Engineering, Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Science, Computing, etc.). Of these, two relate to "human/animal health": the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences (JCC) and the College of Biomedicine (new in January 2025). That official page lists no "Faculty of Medicine" or "医学院 (human medicine)".

# 5.2 Where Hong Kong's human-medicine faculties are — not at CityUHK

For a long time, only two institutions in Hong Kong could award MBBS/MBChB degrees and train registered Western-medicine doctors. A third is now in the works — and none of them is CityUHK:

Any reference to "CityUHK's medical school", "CityUHK MBBS" or "CityUHK-affiliated human hospital" is therefore a misattribution. CityUHK's place in the healthcare landscape is not in the "human medicine" column, but in the columns for "veterinary medicine" and "biomedical research".

# 5.3 Chinese medicine is also "not applicable to this University"

The institutions in Hong Kong offering Chinese-medicine degrees are Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and the University of Hong Kong (HKU)^※. A search confirms that CityUHK offers no bachelor's or master's degree in Chinese medicine, nor does it have a school of Chinese medicine or Chinese-medicine hospital.

It is worth distinguishing "degree" from "research": CityUHK offers no Chinese-medicine degrees, but at the science/biomedical level it conducts research related to traditional Chinese medicine and botanical drugs (for example, in-campus laboratories on Chinese herbal/plant-based drugs). This archive marks the "Chinese-medicine degree" slot as "not applicable to this University"; any research-oriented content (if it arises) belongs to this article and Module 04 "Research", and is not developed here under the banner of a "School of Chinese Medicine".

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# 6. The boundary with a "human-medicine faculty": CityUHK's health profile is research-driven

Putting the facts of this article together clarifies CityUHK's true position on the "health/medical" map:

1. No clinical medical education: CityUHK runs no MBBS/MBChB, has no human affiliated teaching hospital, and does not train registered doctors.
2. Research-driven biomedicine: CityUHK's health-technology research is carried by the new College of Biomedicine (2025) — cancer, neuroscience, regenerative medicine, biomedical engineering, digital medicine, genome editing and more, positioned toward "research + industrial translation".
3. Hong Kong's only veterinary clinical system: In the sense of "clinical training + teaching hospital", what genuinely has a "medical school + hospital" structure at CityUHK is the veterinary side (JCC + animal medical centre + diagnostic laboratories), see veterinary-college.md, veterinary-college-2.md and veterinary-college-3.md.

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