Vice-Chancellor leads delegation to the US

Prof. Joseph Sung, Vice-Chancellor and President of CUHK, led a delegation to the US during 2-3 June 2014 to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University (Harvard) and the University of Rochester (Rochester) to strengthen ties and explore collaboration opportunities. The delegation comprised Prof. Benjamin Wah, Provost; Prof. Helen Meng, Director of the Big Data Decision Analytics Research Center and other members of CUHK.

While at MIT, the delegation met with Dr. L. Rafael Reif, President; Dr. Sanjay E. Sarma, Director of Digital Learning; and Dr. Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX, to learn about the Institute's online education and how MOOC is being used for on-campus digital learning. MIT has been a partner of CUHK since 2010 through a tripartite partnership with Tsinghua University for the Tsinghua-MIT-CUHK Research Center for Theoretical Computer Science and a student exchange programme for computer science and engineering students as well as research collaborations in engineering and science.

The delegation also visited Harvard to learn about its initiatives in novel pedagogies and review the current collaborations in public health and humanitarian response. The partnership between CUHK's Faculty of Medicine and the Harvard School of Public Health was formalised recently in April 2014 when a Memorandum of Understanding to promote human health and well-being through faculty and student mobility was signed.

Rochester and CUHK are both members of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) and the two universities have worked on various research projects over the past years under the auspice of the Network, apart from establishing an undergraduate student exchange programme in 2013. They will continue to look for ways to deepen their ties and collaboration on Big Data research.

CUHK and Utrecht University establish partnership in musculoskeletal research and regenerative medicine

Prof. Joseph Sung visited Utrecht University (UU), the Netherlands, on 12 June 2014 and met with Prof. Jan Kimpen, President of the Executive Board of University Medical Center Utrecht, to sign an agreement for a joint research programme in musculoskeletal research and regenerative medicine. While at UU, Prof. Sung visited the Brain Center Rudolf Magnus and laboratories for regenerative medicine and stem cell research. He also met with senior representatives from UU to discuss research themes "Dynamics of Youth" and "Institutions".

CUHK and UU identify each other as strategic partner for teaching and research and have over the years established multi-layered collaborations, including undergraduate and PhD student exchanges, faculty exchange, and joint research in neuroscience, humanities, youth development, and life sciences. The two units established the CUHK-UU Joint Centre for Language, Mind and Brain in March 2014.

CUHK and Exeter join hands in Psychology teaching and training

Prof. Fanny Cheung, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of CUHK, visited the University of Exeter (Exeter), UK, on 12 May 2014 and met with Prof. Sir Steve Smith, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive, to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the two universities. The MOU will facilitate the training of psychological wellbeing practitioners at CUHK, as well as research collaboration on low-intensity psychological therapies. Prof. Cheung's visit to Exeter was part of her week-long trip to the US and UK which aimed at exchanging information and best practice on research administration and knowledge transfer services with some of the best research universities, including the Universities of California, Berkeley and San Diego; Stanford University; and University of Cambridge.

Associate Vice-President, Prof. Gordon Cheung, reaffirms partnerships with Australian universities

Prof. Gordon Cheng, Associate Vice-President of CUHK, undertook an outreach trip to visit Australian universities during 15-28 May 2014 to promote CUHK's internationalisation mobility schemes, explore collaboration opportunities and reaffirm existing partnerships. Visits were made to University of Queensland, Griffith University, Macquarie University, University of New South Wales, the University of Sydney, University of Melbourne, La Trobe University and Monash University. In view of the University's internationalisation agenda, Prof. Cheung took the opportunity to introduce CUHK's new teaching and research mobility schemes that aim to support development of research links through inbound and outbound visits between CUHK and overseas institutions. Latest information about the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen was also shared.

CUHK hosts the IEAA-APAIE Symposium on "Internationalisation of Higher Education in the Asia-Pacific"

CUHK played host to a two-day Symposium jointly organised by the International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) and the Asia-Pacific Association for International Education (APAIE) during 12-13 June 2014 on its campus. Themed "Internationalisation of Higher Education in the Asia-Pacific", the Symposium has provided a collaborative forum for Australian and Asian institutions to develop innovative joint approaches to the internationalisation of education in the Asia-Pacific region. Some 100 Vice-Presidents in Research/International and heads of International Offices from higher institutions from 65 institutions and organisations in 15 countries/regions took part in the Symposium to discuss two sub-themes "Research Collaboration" and "Student Mobility". During the Symposium, Prof. Gordon Cheung, Associate Vice-President, CUHK, chaired the panel discussions on "Developing Mobility Partnerships" and "Developing Research Strengths". The Symposium has also served as a platform for participants to share views and gain better understanding of common issues. For more details, please click here.

International Partnerships Development Programme 2014-15 opens for application

The Programme promotes the development of partnerships by supporting outbound visits initiated by individual faculty members and their academic units concerned to pursue faculty/ departmental/ institute-level collaborations with partners identified by the University for up to seven days. Some of the partners under this scheme include: Brown University, Karolinska Institutet, University of Cambridge, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Oxford. Selected faculty members will be granted special leave, return airfare and accommodation support. The application deadline is 25 July 2014 for visits during 2014-15. For more details, please click here.

CUHK participated in NAFSA 2014 Annual Conference and Expo in the US

OAL took part in the Study in Hong Kong Pavilion sponsored by and organised by the University Grants Committee at the recent NAFSA 2014 Annual Conference and Expo during 25-30 May 2014 in San Diego, US. OAL members met with potential and existing partners for development and networking purposes. It also played an active role to showcase the higher education landscape of Hong Kong together with other local institutions at the Study in Hong Kong Pavilion.

Awardees of the Inbound and Outbound Research Mobility Schemes 2014-15

CUHK launched the Schemes to develop international research partnerships with leaders in frontier research in different fields through enabling visits between faculty members from CUHK and universities overseas. For outbound visits, 13 applications were approved for selected CUHK members to visit 15 universities including Princeton University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Oxford, and University of Toronto. For inbound visits, 12 applications were approved for selected members from a number of institutions including Universities of Sydney, British Columbia, Southampton, Rochester and North Carolina at Chapel Hill to visit CUHK. To view the list of awardees, please click here.  

Awardee of the CUHK-Waseda University Short-term Faculty Exchange Programme 2014-15

The Programme is part of CUHK's ongoing drive to expand its network of collaborations with international partners to develop high impact research. Each year, one faculty from each university will be invited to the other university for a one-week exchange. For 2014-15, Prof. Ren Chao, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, CUHK, has been selected to visit Waseda University during 16-22 November 2014 to meet with scholars and engage in discussions on her current research "Sustainable Urban and Environmental Design: Climatic Spatial Planning for High-Density Cities". 

The next call for applications for the Programme with Brown University, University of Bristol, University of Leeds, the University of Sydney and Utrecht University will be announced in September 2014.