Students remain at the heart of what HKMU is here for. We are constantly exploring new and better ways to empower our students to achieve success. This means not simply delivering high-quality education in career-relevant fields. We have also been assiduous in boosting a spirit of entrepreneurship among our students, providing internships and placements in which they can explore career options, and fostering creativity, community care and internationalisation right across our student community.
An HKMU education is designed to meet the needs of our society, matching new talent with professional demand. At the same time, it benefits our students by offering them the qualifications and experience they need to enter and thrive in the career of their choice. In March 2024 we established a new Career Development Advisory Committee chaired by the President and made up of members from 16 industry partners and HKMU, student and alumni representatives. This committee will advise the University on new strategies to boost the career development trajectory of our students, and further enhance the employment routes of our graduates.
HKMU has devoted much energy to providing students with workplace exposure. This year's Career Fair, held in March 2024, offered over 5,000 job and internship opportunities for HKMU students, available locally, in the Greater Bay Area or overseas. During the year we also became the first self-financing university to take part in the Innovation and Technology Commission's STEM Internship Scheme, which will open up a raft of new internship opportunities for HKMU students in STEM-related disciplines. Alongside this, an array of industry agreements were signed that will lead to new work-based placements for students from specific programmes. One example is the MoU signed with the Youth of Guangzhou and Hong Kong Association, which unlocked internship opportunities with over 300 corporations based in the city of Guangzhou.
HKMU also helps students expand their career horizons by inspiring them to find creative solutions to challenging issues. The University's first-ever HKMU Hackathon event, held over two days in January 2024, lined up ten finalist teams of creative and technologicallyminded students working under tight time constraints. In July 2024, budding student entrepreneurs were out in force at HKMU's second Entrepreneurship Day, which offered consultations and seminars for young would-be entrepreneurs. The event also included inspiring presentations from startups founded by HKMU alumni, as well as winning projects from HKMU's MetroChallenge entrepreneurship competitions past and present. In MetroChallenge 2024, nine student teams convinced the judges of their entrepreneurial potential, each securing prizes consisting of a HK$100,000 implementation fund and ten months of comprehensive entrepreneurial incubation support.
In the light of the recent spotlight on the mental health challenges of Hong Kong students, HKMU kicked off a three-year University-wide scheme in January 2024 to enhance the mental health of its students. With over HK$10 million to support it, the scheme looks to achieve its goal in three dimensions — providing a mandatory 12-hour “mental health first aid” course for first-year students from 2024–25 onwards, training qualified “mental health first aid” instructors, and optimizing the procedure for handling cases of mental health distress.
Complementing these measures has been the introduction of a new University whole-person development model, Metro FAITH. FAITH is an acronym for five vital student development qualities: “Future skills and intelligence”, “Aesthetics and spirituality”, “Igniting and sports”, “Temperance and justice”, and “Humanity and love”. This model generates a unique learning experience for students focused on building a positive mindset and strengthening personal resilience.
HKMU rolled out a number of exciting new initiatives in the year to attract more students from outside Hong Kong for study and cultural exchange. In addition to housing non-local students, our new accommodation facility, MU88, will provide space for exchange students and visiting scholars when needed. Elsewhere, the new MU Achievers Scheme is giving non-local students studying at HKMU opportunities to immerse themselves in local culture while enhancing their personal growth.
Deepening internationalisation beyond general student exchange and mobility programmes is the Dual Degree Master's Programme, jointly offered by the Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration and the Toulouse School of Management (TSM). Under the exchange agreement, upon completion of one year of study at each of the home and host institutions, students of the two institutions will be awarded two degrees: a Master of Business Administration from HKMU, and a Master in International Marketing of Innovation from TSM.
For students at home, B&A organised an immersive study tour to the Greater Bay Area (GBA) for all first-year students in January 2024. The largest of its kind offered by any university in Hong Kong, the tour enabled over 650 students to expand their horizons in the GBA from cultural, historical, innovation and technological perspectives, and encouraged them to explore development opportunities in the region.
Increasingly, HKMU students are becoming global citizens through their involvement in immersion tours, exchange programmes, and other forms of international travel and exploration.
Our expanding service-learning and community engagement initiatives have got more students than ever involved in putting their learning into practice in ways that directly help real people in need. Highlights of the year included the Service-Learning Challenge, the University's first competition challenging students to develop their own service projects, which rewarded outstanding teams with a service-learning trip to Africa in summer 2024; the MU Global Citizenship Programme, a global awareness programme that included a cross-culture student enrichment tour to Sri Lanka; the Me&U Community Caring Programme, in which student teams drove various projects to engage with and support specific vulnerable groups; and SEN Me Your Love, which saw student leaders reach out to organise activities for children with special education needs living in subdivided units.
Back on campus, the first-ever HKMU Festival took place in March 2024, organised by the School of Arts and Social Sciences. The event offered an opportunity for students from all Schools to showcase their wide range of creative talents, in a vibrant programme put together by a student organising committee.
Reinforcing its growing commitment to sports, the University once again hosted the Metropolitan Cup, an inter-varsity 3×3 basketball tournament, in June 2024. This year, however, the tournament was held on a much-expanded scale, with 18 teams invited from a range of tertiary education institutions in Hong Kong, Macau, the mainland and Singapore.
HKMU's annual Scholarships and Awards Gala, held in June 2024, celebrated another year of outstanding student achievement while breaking new records in terms of the amount of scholarships and number of awards presented. Support from a multitude of long-term individual and corporate donors saw our total scholarship funding reach HK$40 million, used to recognise the efforts of over 1,700 student beneficiaries at HKMU.
Each year brings a new batch of outstanding achievements by HKMU students and graduates that are worthy of acclaim. This list summarises some of the very best of the crop in 2023–24.
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MACL = MA in Chinese Literature
MACW = MA in Creative Writing
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ACL = BEd (Hons) (Chinese Language Teaching) and Bachelor of Language Studies with Honours (Applied Chinese Language Studies)
EDECE = BEd (Hons) in Early Childhood Education (Leadership and Special Educational Needs)
IDDA = BFA (Hons) in Imaging Design and Digital Art
NG = BNurs (Hons) in General Health Care
NM = BNurs (Hons) in Mental Health Care
PMH = BSSc (Hons) in Psychology and Mental Health
PT = BSc (Hons) in Physiotherapy
SEM = BBA (Hons) in Sports and eSports Management
SRM= Bachelor of Sports and Recreation Management with Honours
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ACL = BEd (Hons) (Chinese Language Teaching) and Bachelor of Language Studies with Honours (Applied Chinese Language Studies)
AT = BBA (Hons) in Accounting and Taxation
CH = BA (Hons) in Chinese
CS = BSc (Hons) in Computer Science
EL = Bachelor of English Language Studies with Honours
ELS = BEd (Hons) in English Language Teaching and Bachelor of English Language Studies with Honours
FTS = BSc (Hons) in Food Testing Science
HDECE = HD in Early Childhood Education
HDNG = HD in Nursing Studies (General Health Care)
HDNM = HD in Nursing Studies (Mental Health Care)
NG = BNurs (Hons) in General Health Care
NM = BNurs (Hons) in Mental Health Care
PA = BBA (Hons) in Professional Accounting
PPA = BSSc (Hons) in Politics and Public Administration
PS = BSSc (Hons) in Psychology
PT = BSc (Hons) in Physiotherapy
SRM= Bachelor of Sports and Recreation Management with Honours
YJ = Diploma Yi Jin
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AMVE = BFA (Hons) in Animation and Visual Effects
CAMD = BA (Hons) in Creative Advertising and Media Design
MACW = MA in Creative Writing
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MPMGBM = Master of Professional Management in Global Business in Marketing
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ATS = BSc (Hons) in Analytical Testing Science
BSE = BEng (Hons) in Building Services Engineering and Sustainable Development
CEE = BEng (Hons) in Civil and Environmental Engineering
CS = BSc (Hons) in Computer Science
ECE = BEng (Hons) in Electronic and Computer Engineering
HDNG = HD in Nursing Studies (General Health Care)
MBA = Master of Business Administration
MSCSAG = MSc in Smart Ageing and Gerontology
TIC = BASc (Hons) in Integrated Testing, Inspection and Certification
TSC = BSc (Hons) in Testing Science and Certification
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ACL = BEd (Hons) (Chinese Language Teaching) and Bachelor of Language Studies with Honours (Applied Chinese Language Studies)
ELS = BEd (Hons) in English Language Teaching and Bachelor of English Language Studies with Honours
NM = BNurs (Hons) in Mental Health Care
OSHM = BSc (Hons) in Occupational Safety and Health Management
