The past year has been a time of steady growth and heartening progress for both the OUHK and our students.

Growing awareness of the value and ever-increasing range of programmes we offer has led to an upsurge in our enrolment figures. There are close to 6,000 students pursuing full-time programmes and about 12,000 in distance learning.

Meanwhile, no fewer than 6,300 students received their degrees and other awards in 2011. The journey through higher education was long and strenuous for many of them; yet, seeing the joy on their faces at its successful outcome, has inspired us to continue our mission with even greater determination and vigour.

Construction of our New College in Ho Man Tin began with a ground-breaking ceremony held in the presence of a number of distinguished guests in February 2012. The new facility will mark the start of a fresh era for the OUHK, because it will allow us to expand and develop more innovative high-quality educational programmes to satisfy society’s ever-evolving needs and the aspirations of our students.

Work on the New College is now progressing towards its scheduled completion by the end of 2013. I am confident its completion will further reinforce the OUHK’s leading position among Hong Kong’s self-financing educational institutions.

However, I would like to mention that a major challenge of the New College project comes from the construction cost which has gone up to more than $720 million. In this context, I would like to thank our longstanding supporter, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, which has funded so many of our projects and facilities in the past, for its most generous grant of $190 million towards the project. In addition, I would like to pay tribute to the big-hearted donations from the Wu Jieh Yee Charitable Foundation and Ms Connie Fong Yin-king, as well as the much-appreciated gifts we have received from our students, alumni, staff members and benefactors in the community. I would also like to appeal to all our supporters for their continued financial help towards the project’s success.

Another major milestone in the OUHK’s history will be the implementation of the new university curriculum under the ‘3+3+4’ system in 2012. We are committed to the new structure, which takes a more holistic approach to the educational experience and seeks to develop graduates capable of success in the global knowledge economy. This change also gives us an outstanding opportunity to move forward and excel, as the OUHK began pioneering the provision of four-year university education programmes in 2003.

As the aspiration for higher education is continuing to grow stronger in Hong Kong, we have continually updated and expanded our study programmes to stay current with our students’ varied learning needs. Today, we offer more than 200 programmes and over 700 courses through distance, full-time, part-time and online learning. New programmes introduced during the year cover a broad range of subject areas, such as testing and certification, applied statistics, engineering, enterprise computing and aircraft maintenance engineering.

At the same time, the educational resources we offer our students and the support that we provide to them have been further extended. To increase the reach and accessibility of our programmes, we have continued to adopt the latest educational technology. The completion of the Centre for Innovation project has helped to create a contemporary learning and teaching environment, while more initiatives were taken to make our learning materials accessible via both traditional and new media.

The OUHK’s success is underpinned by the many academic partnerships and collaborations that we enjoy with various sectors of the local community, as well as the educational sector in Hong Kong and around the world. These partnerships and connections, in the form of conferences, seminars, collaborative agreements and visits, enable us to improve learning and teaching, at the same time contributing to making the OUHK a successful educational institution.

For example, in April 2011 we co-hosted the Association of Commonwealth Universities Conference of Executive Heads, helping to provide an important international platform for academics and educational experts from 22 countries and regions to explore issues involving the development of higher education in a changing environment. We also co-organized the 2011 International Conference on ICT in Teaching and Learning held in July 2011.

Apart from taking an active part in international and regional conferences, we have invited experts and academics to host seminars and give talks to provide a forum for the sharing of ideas, knowledge and experience.

Various topics were covered during the year, including law and order, global politics and economics, information technologies, marketing, engineering, environmental protection and energy.

During the year, we also signed a number of memoranda of understanding and collaborative agreements, involving cooperation in various educational and professional growth areas. Our partners included educational institutions in the region and on the mainland, as well as organizations such as the Heep Hong Society and the IBM China/Hong Kong Limited.

Our supporters’ generosity – through donations and other contributions – is part of what makes the OUHK a leader among self-financing universities in Hong Kong. In this respect, I would like to thank our many alumni, staff members, students and friends in the community. Your continued support to the OUHK is important as it can assist our efforts to develop new facilities, offer new courses, provide support to our students and further improve every aspect of our services.

Besides thanking all our well-wishers for their past support, I would like to conclude by asking you to give your continued backing for our mission of making higher education available to all. Learning empowers our students to acquire new knowledge and explore new ideas. Thus, with your help, the OUHK is playing a role in nurturing the future success of our students, as well as the future well-being of our society and all who live in it.