Academics
Colleges and departmental curricula, research breakthroughs and innovation/entrepreneurship, and veterinary and health sciences.
01 Academics Faculties · Departments · Programmes
12 articlesColleges and departments, undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, and the academic system and general-education framework.
CityU Colleges and Academic Departments: An Overview
CityU now has 7 Colleges + 3 Schools + 1 graduate school; two years of intensive restructuring (2024–2025) produced the College of Computing and the College of Biomedicine. This article sets out each college's positioning and departments, with a complete list of all academic units.
CityU Academic Structure, Credit-Unit System, Gateway Education (GE) and the Grading and Honours Framework
CityU switched to four-year degrees in 2012 as part of Hong Kong's territory-wide "3-3-4" reform and, in the same year, absorbed the resource stress test of a "double cohort" of incoming students. The Gateway Education curriculum that emerged from the reform, together with the American-style Latin honours introduced in 2020, now form the two pillars of the current academic structure.
CityU Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programmes, Graduate School and Doctoral Training
CityU runs more than 150 bachelor's and postgraduate programmes, with about 80% of postgraduate students coming from outside Hong Kong; top PhD applicants on HKPFS can receive a monthly stipend of HK$28,400. This article maps the degree spectrum and the doctoral training system of the Chow Yei Ching School of Graduate Studies.
CityU Graduate School and Doctoral Training System — The Structure and Funding of Research Degrees
CityU's Graduate School was established in 1994 and named after Chow Yei Ching following his donation in 2006; it does not award degrees but coordinates standards. This piece digs into the naming history, the professional doctorate spectrum, and how the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (400 places territory-wide in 2026/27) operates at CityU.
The College of Business and its "Triple Crown" Accreditation
Over three years (2005–2008), the College of Business of CityU completed AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA accreditations, becoming the first "Triple Crown" business school in Greater China; EQUIS has been renewed three times for five-year terms, and the MBA ranked 98th globally and first in Hong Kong in the QS 2026 rankings.
School of Law — One of Only Three PCLL-Authorised Schools, with a Chinese Law Tradition
Only three institutions in Hong Kong are authorised to teach the PCLL course that is mandatory for legal practice, and CityU is one of them; this article covers its history, the LLB/JD dual track, its Chinese law tradition and four research centres, foreign-related legal training and its 2026 rise in international rankings.
Department of Linguistics and Translation & College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS)
LT is the only department within CLASS that combines interpreting training with computational/corpus linguistics research, ranking 36th globally in Linguistics in QS 2026; this piece also surveys CLASS's seven academic units and research centres.
The College of Engineering's Seven Departments: CityU's Engineering Landscape and Its Materials-Science Flagship
The College's seven departments cover the main branches of engineering. Its flagship, Materials Science and Engineering, ranks first in Hong Kong and among the world's best; Electrical Engineering anchors Hong Kong's first national key laboratory in the engineering sector; ACE is Hong Kong's only department combining architecture, civil engineering and surveying under one roof; 16 engineering subjects make the global top 50, the most of any Hong Kong university.
College of Computing (new in 2024) and the College of Science — reorganising disciplines for the AI era
In 2024, CityUHK integrated computer science, data science and biostatistics into a new College of Computing under founding dean Prof. Wang Jianping, complementing it with the Hong Kong Institute of AI for Science as a bet on the AI era; the College of Science, after losing biomedical sciences and biostatistics, now focuses on chemistry, mathematics and physics, each ranked first in Hong Kong.
School of Energy and Environment (SEE) — Hong Kong's First Dedicated Energy and Environment School (2009)
CityUHK established Hong Kong's first dedicated energy and environment school in 2009, and welcomed sea-level scientist Benjamin Horton as Dean in 2025; its three research centres underpin CityUHK's dual Hong Kong No. 1 rankings in the Nature Index clean energy and SDG 9.
CityU School of Creative Media (SCM) — A Regional Pioneer at the Intersection of Art × Technology
Founded in 1998 under founding director Christine Choy, CityU's SCM launched Hong Kong's first "art + science" degree in 2012; it is housed in Libeskind-designed Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, its ACIM research centre operates motion capture and Gallery 360, and alumni Nick Cheuk and Ng Ki-chong have recently won Golden Horse and Hong Kong Film Awards.
Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences (JCC) — Academic Profile: Hong Kong's Only Veterinary School
CityU's JCC is Hong Kong's only veterinary school; its BVM holds Asia's first AVBC/RCVS dual accreditation and ranked in the QS global top 100 for Veterinary Science in both 2025 and 2026, placing No. 1 in Hong Kong; in 2023 its first cohort of locally trained vets graduated and registered to practise.
04 Research Labs · Breakthroughs · Startups
11 articlesKey laboratories, landmark breakthroughs, named centres and spin-off companies.
Zhang Hua and Phase Engineering of 2D Nanomaterials — The Frontier of Noble-Metal Nanosheets at CityU Chemistry
Gold, platinum and palladium are almost always stable in a single crystal phase in nature. Zhang Hua's team managed to bend them into new phases — and in doing so pushed platinum's hydrogen-evolution mass activity to 85 A mg⁻¹ in a Nature paper. This article traces "Phase Engineering of Nanomaterials (PEN)" from its conception to a fully fledged literature system across multiple top-journal reviews.
CityU Patent Output, Technology Transfer, and the HK Tech 300 Start-up Ecosystem
In CityU's research narrative, papers are never the whole story — patents are. Ten straight years as Hong Kong's No. 1 for US patents, an Asia top-ten berth, a haul of Geneva invention prizes, and a closed "patent → licence → start-up" loop: this article takes apart the machine that turns intellectual property into cash.
CityU Research on Materials, Nanotechnology, Perovskite Solar Cells and Droplet Electricity
The weightiest piece of the CityU research narrative — materials and engineering: the densest concentration of Highly Cited Researchers, the heaviest platforms, the most concentrated breakthroughs, spanning perovskite solar cells, dual-phase magnesium alloys, phase-engineered nanomaterials, 6G metasurface antennas and biomimetic vision sensors, with a map to four deeper dives.
CityU Research Overview, Platforms, Patents, Start-ups and Life Sciences
How did a university barely four decades old manage to rank No. 1 in Hong Kong on three hard metrics — Nature Index, U.S. patents and Highly Cited Researchers? This article maps CityU's research positioning and points to five deeper dives into each field of strength.
CityU Research: Creative Media, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence
Inside a nine-storey tower designed by architect Daniel Libeskind sits Asia's first creative media school. This article traces the three pillars through which CityU weaves "computation" and "creativity" together — SCM, the Department of Data Science and HKAI-Sci — covering their history, leadership succession, programme structures and recent developments.
CityU Research: Veterinary Medicine, Life Sciences, Infectious Diseases, Food Safety and the Ocean
Only one university in Hong Kong runs a veterinary school, and it is CityU. This article walks through JCC's fifteen-year journey from the 2008 ambition to Asia's first dual accreditation, the six-year BVM and the animal medical centre, the three antimicrobial-resistance projects in farming and fisheries, and the marine laboratory's UN-endorsed GEM decade programme.
CityUHK Research Institutes: State Key Laboratories, HKIAS and Other Research Platforms
Research output needs platforms to stand on — from CityUHK's two State Key Laboratories, to the Nobel-honoured HKIAS, to the clean-energy and AI institutes founded in quick succession in recent years. This article sets out the full inventory of these heavyweight platforms at a glance, with their accreditation history and the boundaries of the official figures.
High-Entropy Alloys and Advanced Metals — CityU's Flagship Materials Research Line
High-entropy alloys, which mix five or more metallic elements in roughly equal proportions and deliberately court "disorder", are CityU materials science's strongest hand. This article lays out more than a dozen key breakthroughs along this research line — from structural strengthening to energy catalysis — and how they underpin the "Grand Slam" status of CityU's materials science discipline.
Named Professorships, Academicians and Highly Cited Researchers at CityUHK
How does a young university fill its CV with Nobel Prizes, Fields Medals and academy memberships? Not by growing its own, but by targeted recruitment. This article surveys CityUHK's academician directory, its 43 HKIAS Senior Fellows (including 3 Nobel laureates), the full official directory of named professorships, and the four-year Highly Cited Researchers trend from 2022–2025.
Perovskite Solar Cells — CityU's Clean-Energy Frontier in Chemistry and Materials
Perovskite cells are seen as the "next-generation" candidate for photovoltaics, yet have been stuck on two hurdles: "efficiency" and "how long they last". In five years, the CityU team has made five moves in succession, working from interface engineering all the way to a record tandem cell efficiency of 31.32% in 2025, cross-referenced against the global track (LONGi, Oxford PV).
Zuankai Wang and the Droplet-Based Electricity Generator – Biomimetic Surfaces and a Nature Cover Study at CityU Mechanical Engineering
A drop of water falling from 15 cm can light 100 small LED bulbs – not magic, but what Zuankai Wang's team achieved with a field-effect-transistor-style device. This article traces the full arc: from the superhydrophobic "pancake bouncing" Guinness record, to the Nature cover droplet generator, through to the PolyU-era follow-up iterations.
11 Medicine Schools · Hospitals
7 articlesMedicine/health-related colleges and departments, teaching hospitals and clinical practice.
CityU Veterinary College (JCC): Hong Kong's Only Veterinary Degree with International Accreditation
CityU's Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences (JCC) was founded in 2014 in partnership with Cornell University; its six-year BVM programme became Asia's first AVBC+RCVS dual-accredited veterinary degree in 2023, and all 11 graduates of the first cohort are now registered to practise.
The College of Biomedicine and the boundary of CityUHK having no human-medicine faculty (new in 2025)
CityUHK has no human-medicine faculty; the College of Biomedicine, new in January 2025, carries research-driven health technology through three departments (Biomedical Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Neuroscience). This article also sets out the boundary between this "absence" and this "presence".
CityU Veterinary Medical Centre (VMC) and Diagnostic Laboratory — Twin Engines of Clinical Care and Teaching
The CityU Veterinary Medical Centre (VMC), opened in 2019, spans over 33,000 sq ft and is one of Southeast Asia's largest veterinary centres, holding ISFM gold Cat Friendly Clinic accreditation; its companion diagnostic laboratory (VDL) is Hong Kong's first commercial veterinary diagnostic laboratory with a dedicated post-mortem room.
OHRP Explained Question by Question — Founding, Government Funding, Ambulatory Pig-and-Chicken Vets, and International Role
CityU's OHRP Centre was founded in 2016 on the "human, animal and environmental health as one trinity" framework; its ambulatory vet teams visit more than a thousand farms and fisheries across Hong Kong and advise international bodies such as WOAH, making it a key mechanism for extending the veterinary college into public-health outreach.
From Peace Avenue Veterinary Clinic to CityU VMC — The Acquisition, Expansion and Accreditation Trail, 1984 to Today
A year-by-year walk through the VMC's origins: PAVC opened in 1984, became a training centre in 2001, introduced Hong Kong's first pet MRI in 2004, expanded in Homantin in 2008, was fully acquired by CityU in 2016, and moved to Sham Shui Po in 2019 with nearly double the floor area.
On the Ground at the Centre for Applied One Health Research and Policy Advice (OHRP) — Roaming Vets, Three Project Ledgers, and Pig Farms, Chicken Farms and Fish Rafts
CityU has a veterinary hospital and a diagnostic laboratory — and a centre that drives vets out to the fields. OHRP, established in 2016, used HK$35 million from the AFCD to take Hong Kong's first "ambulatory veterinary service" into pig farms, chicken farms and fish rafts, turning farms into sentinel posts for public health.
Who Runs CityU's Veterinary Medical Centre (VMC)? — The Vet Health Group, Fees, and the Sham Shui Po Trinity Towers Dispute
After CityU acquired the Peace Avenue Veterinary Clinic in 2016, it did not run the resulting VMC directly but through its wholly owned subsidiary, CityU Veterinary Health Group; this public animal hospital under a public university kept the old clinic's fees, introduced human-style emergency triage, yet drew local opposition over its choice of Trinity Towers, Sham Shui Po, as its site.