Joshua Mok: HK institutional development in GBA leads to win-win-win situation

Professor Joshua Mok Ka-ho, Vice-President of Lingnan University, said he believed that with the decline in the number of local students of the right age, attracting talent from around the world is a key development priority. The move to the Greater Bay Area will break through the limitations of local universities and broaden the learning experience and career paths of our young people, he added.

In the past 25 years, Hong Kong's higher education sector has flourished, with government-funded universities and self-financing institutions each taking their place, private institutions being upgraded to universities, and subsidized universities taking the lead in setting up branches in mainland China.

Mok, who has studied the development of education in the Greater Bay Area and the local community, analyzed the history of HK universities in the Mainland, saying that the Guangdong Provincial Government was hesitant to co-operate with Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU)in Zhuhai in 2005, but later became supportive as the institution got better and better and gradually reached the first-tier student intake level.

In 2014, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) set up a branch in Shenzhen, starting from a higher level than HKBU. The announcement in 2018 that the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology would be located in Nansha, Guangzhou, was a big hit.

"Not only because of its high world ranking, but also because of its technological and research standards, which are in line with the direction of Guangzhou's innovation development," Mok commented.

Mok said that the Mainland government has no shortage of financial resources to invest in university teaching and research, saying that Tsinghua University's annual funding alone is more than the eight universities in HK combined. "If we complement each other and share resources to develop stronger research capabilities, we can consolidate HK's position as an education hub in the region and create opportunities for our young people."

He believes that the State's policy of encouraging HK universities to develop in the Greater Bay Area will lead to a "win-win-win" situation for HK, Mainland institutions and the Central Government's own talent pool.

Mok believes with a declining student population in HK, if the student intake is expanded to the Greater Bay Area, which has a population of 60 to 70 million, and with HK universities playing an international role and Mainland universities playing an industrial and research linkage role, students will have a wider range of learning experiences and career paths in the future.

At the same time, the Greater Bay Area will provide an opportunity to attract talents from all over the world, including the Mainland, to HK for the future development of university education. "The top group of students who choose to come to HK to study is also the future reserve of talents." Mok said that even though these students may not stay in HK after their studies, their experience in HK will be a "link" for their future development when they return to work in the Mainland or elsewhere after obtaining an HK degree and gaining an understanding of HK.