One challenge for self-financing institutions is to attract and retain quality academics. To overcome the challenge, the University has tapped into its QEM funding to set up a Central Faculty Fund to back the new Global Faculty Recruitment Campaign, as well as a Faculty Advancement Fund to provide for academics who are undertaking teaching sabbaticals of up to 12 months for research or professional development. A quota-free Annual Promotion Exercise has also been introduced, allowing all academic staff to apply and be considered for promotion based on set criteria. Both recruitment and promotion are conducted with a view to increasing the senior-to-junior academic staffing ratio. In this academic year, the University has recruited eight new academic staff at the rank of Professor or above, and approved 24 of 49 applications for the promotion of existing staff. To bring in staff with strong industry track records, the University is also looking into the possibility of establishing a clinical track and the rank of Professor of Practice.
