Dear Colleagues,
This year, the number of full-time, face-to-face students at HKMU has reached 17,234, an increase of 1,285 from 15,949 in the 2024-2025 academic year. This growth is due mainly to the admission of more first-year, first-degree students, who will be with us for four years. Consequently, there is an urgent and increasing need for additional space for staff offices, student activities, and programmes requiring specialised facilities, particularly in the radiography and engineering-related disciplines.
To accommodate this expansion, the university has leased about 34,000 square feet of space on the second floor of Oi Man Plaza. This addition will facilitate a holistic replanning and reorganisation of space utilisation for the entire university over the next ten years, particularly before the completion of the Hub for Community Health and Wellness.
Looking ahead, the development of the Northern Metropolis University Town (NMUT) offers another opportunity for HKMU. We were among the first batch of universities to express interest in embracing this government-led initiative. Although many details have yet to be revealed, our current proposal involves establishing a self-contained academic school at the NMUT to take advantage of the available space and its proximity to the industrial and commercial clusters in Shenzhen. We will have further discussions on the positioning of our University in the NMUT Project in due course.
I would also like to provide an update on MU88, a pioneering project in Hong Kong. MU88 is currently undergoing a complete transformation into a brand-new student hostel with modern facilities for about 430 students. During the renovation work, our FMO colleagues approached 97 charitable organisations to make effective use of 383 mattresses and 220 television sets. In the end, we donated all these items to three local non-profit organisations.
This small gesture demonstrates that while we are moving full steam ahead with many initiatives and plans, we continue to play our part as a responsible member of the community.
Paul LAM Kwan-sing
President
