The University of Hong Kong (HKU) celebrates its centenary in 2011-12. It is the oldest university in Hong Kong, and it remains a respected leader of higher education across Asia. For the third consecutive year, it has been named the best university in Asia by the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings. Its overall placement moved one place up to 22 this year too.

HKU’s accepted freshmen typically have the highest average score across all subjects among that of the eight public universities and one private university in Hong Kong, and this is also true for the 500 or so freshmen admitted to its engineering stream. The reason that the program is so competitive is its consistently high rankings by world standards. In the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2010-2011, HKU’s engineering program was ranked 19th.

HKU Engineering Students

Pic: The University of Hong Kong.

As one of the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) founding faculties, the mission of the Faculty of Engineering is to provide a well-rounded curriculum and high quality engineering education in the global knowledge-based economy, and to engage in innovative, high impact basic and applied research within and across disciplines.  The emphasis is on the balance between technical and non-technical subjects, theoretical foundation and practical design and applications, and the education of the mind as well as the whole person.

The Faculty of Engineering has been making significant contributions to Hong Kong and the engineering community world-wide by training top-rated engineers. Amongst its graduates, there are internationally renowned engineers as well as eminent community leaders.  Today, the Faculty of Engineering continues to attract the best students from Hong Kong to study the many diverse programs, with an annual average intake of about 500 students into the undergraduate curricula.

There are five departments in the Faculty:

1)     Department of Civil Engineering

2)     Department of Computer Science

3)     Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

4)     Department of Mechanical Engineering

5)     Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering.

The Faculty also offers two to three years part-time and one to two years full-time MSc programs by coursework to more than 1000 students, as well as well-established MPhil and PhD programs to over 300 research students.

The facilities of the faculty available for staff and students are comparable to top universities in the world with over 100 well equipped laboratories, hundreds of workstations and personal computers.   In the year of 2009-2010, the Faculty had 1,583 first degree engineering graduates, 1,038 postgraduate research and taught masters graduates, and over 120 academic staff ranging from Assistant Professors to Professors.

The Faculty of Engineering has had much contribution to engineering solutions for Hong Kong and the region, in such areas such as container traffic, harbour waves, computer systems, landslips, and medical engineering.

HKU Electrical Engineering

Pic: The University of Hong Kong.

To highlight some recent achievements by both professors and students from each of the departments: the Department of Civil Engineering collaborated with the Department of Computer Science in a joint hydraulic project, which won the Second Prize in the State Awards of China in Science and Technology in 2010. The Systems Group under the Department of Computer Science and the HKU Computer Centre jointly established a grid computing infrastructure, which was the only grid point in Hong Kong connecting to the China National Grid. In addition, Dr. F. F. Wu from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering was granted the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Symposium on Electrical Power and Engineering in Taiwan.

Although most students earn a Bachelor of Engineering degree by the end of either their three-year or four-year curricula, some engineering students may pursue a double degree from the Faculty of Business and Economics at HKU in a four-year curriculum. By double-majoring in Finance, Human Resource and Management, or Marketing, certain engineering student will obtain the Bachelor of Business Administration degree along with their BEng degrees upon completion of all course requirements.

Recently the Faculty of Engineering has also introduced two new joint programs with the University of Cambridge and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC) respectively.

HKU Main Building

Pic: The University of Hong Kong.

In the HKU-Cambridge collaboration, up to 10 engineering students will be admitted in the class of 2012 and thereafter can be admitted to the first year of the engineering program at Cambridge after completing their first year of study at HKU. The criteria for selection are based mainly on academic standing, and both local and non-local students, including students from mainland China, are eligible to apply.

In the HKU-UIUC collaboration, up to 15 undergraduate HKU engineering students admitted in the class of 2010 and thereafter may spend the final year of their studies at UIUC to complete their Bachelor of Engineering degrees. Upon completion, they have the option of enrolling in a graduate engineering program at UIUC and may receive the Master of Science degree in a respective field in as little as one year.

Living in Hong Kong
Being a former British colony, Hong Kong has always been well connected to the rest of the world. Now strategically bound with China, HKU will not only enjoy more generous funding from the Chinese government but also provide its students with ample employment opportunities in mainland China. Already for the fifth consecutive year, HKU graduates have secured virtually full employment with 99.7% of graduates employed in Hong Kong and beyond.

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