The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is a public university in Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese by the London Missionary Society and formally established as the University of Hong Kong in 1911. It is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. The college was later incorporated as HKU's medical school in 1911.
The University of Hong Kong was founded in 1911. The colony's governor, Sir Frederick Lugard (1858–1945), first proposed in January 1908 during a graduation ceremony at St Stephen's College to establish a university in Hong Kong to compete with the other Great Powers opening universities in China, most notably Germany, which had just opened the Tongji German Medical School in Shanghai. Sir Lugard saw the establishment of the university as an opportunity to promote British culture to China and the Chinese people through education, in turn enhancing Britain's influence in the Far East. He quoted saying, "We must either now take those opportunities or leave them for others to take...". Sir Hormusjee Naorojee Mody, an Indian Parsi businessman in Hong Kong, learned of Lugard's plan and pledged to donate towards the construction and towards other costs. The Hong Kong Government and the business sector in southern China, which were both equally eager to learn "secrets of the West's success" (referring to technological advances made since the Industrial Revolution), also gave their support. The Government contributed a site at West Point. Swire Group contributed to endow a chair in Engineering, in addition to thousands of dollars in equipment (its aim was partly to bolster its corporate image following the death of a passenger on board one of its ships, SS Fatshan, and the subsequent unrest stirred by the Self-Government Society). Along with donations from other donors including the British government and companies such as HSBC, Lugard finally had enough to fund the building of the university.
Charles Eliot was appointed the university's first vice-chancellor. The university was incorporated in Hong Kong as a self-governing body of scholars on 30 March 1911 and had its official opening ceremony on 11 March 1912. It was founded as an all-male institution; women were admitted for the first time ten years later. The Faculty of Medicine was previously founded as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese by the London Missionary Society in 1887. Of the college's early alumni, the most renowned was Sun Yat-sen, In 1927, a degree in Chinese was created. Donations from wealthy businessmen Tang Chi Ngong and Fung Ping Shan – after whom two campus buildings are named – triggered an emphasis on Chinese cultural education. In 1937, the Queen Mary Hospital opened. It has served as the university's teaching hospital ever since. In 1941, the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong caused damage to university buildings, and the university closed until 1945; during this period, the university's medical school moved to Chengdu.
1945 to 2001
After the end of the Second World War, the university reopened and investment in law and the social sciences increased as post-war reconstruction efforts began in earnest. The Faculty of Social Sciences was established in 1967 and the Department of Law in 1969. The student population in 1961 was 2,000, quadrupled from 1941, and in 1980 the number of students exceeded 5,500.
In 1982, the Faculty of Dentistry, based at the Prince Philip Dental Hospital, was established. To this day, it remains Hong Kong's only faculty training dental professionals. In 1984, both the School of Architecture and School of Education became fully-fledged faculties and in the same year the Faculty of Law was created. The Faculty of Business and Economics was established in 2001 as the university's tenth and youngest faculty.
After 1989, the Hong Kong government began to emphasise local tertiary education in order to retain local students who would otherwise have studied abroad in the United Kingdom. Student places and course variety were greatly increased in preparation for the handover of Hong Kong. By 2001, the number of students had grown to 14,300 and the number of degree courses to over a hundred.
2001 to present
thumb|The university's campus in present day
In 2002, Growing with Hong Kong: The University and Its Graduates — The First 90 Years was published by the Hong Kong University Press as a study of the impact of HKU's graduates on Hong Kong.
In January 2006, despite protest from a portion of students and alumni, the Faculty of Medicine was renamed as the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine
"to recognize the generosity of Mr Li and his Foundation as well as the wish of the donors to support, in addition to the general development of the University, research and academic activities in medicine."
On 16 August 2011, Li Keqiang, Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China, began a three-day visit to promote development between Hong Kong and mainland China. The university was locked down. The mishandling by the police force caused the Hong Kong 818 incident. On 30 August 2011, the university council resolved to set up a panel to review issues arising from the vice premier's visit, to improve arrangements and to set up policies for future university events that are consistent with its commitment to freedom of expression.
From 2010 to 2012, the university celebrated its 100th anniversary and the opening of the Centennial Campus at the western end of the university site in Pokfulam. The University of Hong Kong–Shenzhen Hospital, one of the two teaching hospitals of the university, also opened in 2011.
On 10 April 2015, HKU declared itself as the first university in the world to join HeForShe, a UN Women initiative urging men to achieve more female rights. The university promised that it would triple the number of female dean-level members by 2020, so that more than 1 out of every 5 deans would be women.
On 15 December 2017, the university's governing council appointed University of California, Berkeley nanoscience professor Xiang Zhang to the posts of President and Vice-Chancellor with effect from January 2018. Zhang was the first vice-chancellor of the university born in mainland China and educated to undergraduate degree level there.
On 4 September 2023, the university announced the appointment of Fraser Stoddart, a chemist and Nobel Laureate, as a Chair Professor. Stoddart has been a Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University, Illinois, United States, for the past 16 years. at the age of 82.
On 17 October 2025, the university announced the appointment of Ferenc Krausz as Chair Professor at the Department of Physics. Krausz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Pierre Agostini and Anne L'Huillier in 2023 "for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter." They generated and measured the first attosecond light pulse and used it to capture electron motion inside atoms, marking the birth of attophysics.
2015 political interference
The HKU Council made headlines in 2015 for alleged political interference behind the selection process for a new pro-vice chancellor. A selection committee unanimously recommended the council appoint Johannes Chan to the post, which involved the responsibility for staffing and resources, and which had been left vacant for five years. Chan, the former dean of the Faculty of Law, was a distinguished scholar in constitutional law and human rights and "a vocal critic on Hong Kong's political reform issues". Owing to his liberal political stance, Chan was roundly criticised by Communist Party-controlled media including Wen Wei Po, Ta Kung Pao, and Global Times, which together published at least 350 articles attacking him.
Customarily the HKU Council accepts the recommendations of search committees for senior posts, with no prior recommendation having been rejected by the council. The council was criticised when it delayed the decision to appoint Chan, stating that it should wait until a new provost was in place. Finally, in September 2015, the council rejected Chan's appointment (12 votes to eight) through an anonymous vote in a closed meeting, providing no reason for the decision.
The decision is seen widely viewed as a pro-government act of retaliation against "pro-democracy leaders and participants" and a blow to academic freedom. Five members are delegates to the National People's Congress in Beijing and, as such, are obliged to toe the Communist Party line or risk expulsion. In overall Council makeup, university students and staff are outnumbered by members from outside the university. The law faculty also refuted the allegations against Chan. Billy Fung, student union president, revealed details of the discussion to the public and was subsequently expelled from the council.
Campuses
thumb|Main Building
thumb|Main Building corridor
thumb|[[Eliot Hall and May Hall|Eliot Hall, May Hall and Meng Wah Complex]]
thumb|The Kadoorie Biological Sciences Building and the [[Pillar of Shame#Pillar of Shame in Hong Kong|Pillar of Shame]]
thumb|upright|T.T. Tsui Building
right|thumb|Academic Conference Room of the [[University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law|Faculty of Law at the Cheng Yu Tung Tower on the Centennial Campus with the view of Victoria Harbour]]
The university's main campus covers of land on Pok Fu Lam Road and Bonham Road in Pok Fu Lam Hong Kong Island. The university also has a few buildings in Sandy Bay Gap in Southern District. Buildings of the university are some of the few remaining examples of British Colonial architecture in Hong Kong. The university lends its name to HKU MTR station, the main public transport access to the campus which had opened on 28 December 2014.
The Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine is situated 4.5 km southwest of the main campus, in the Southern District near Sandy Bay and Pok Fu Lam. The medical campus includes Queen Mary Hospital, the William M.W. Mong Building and research facilities. The Faculty of Dentistry is situated in the Prince Philip Dental Hospital, Sai Ying Pun.
The university also operates the Kadoorie Agricultural Research Centre, which occupies of land in the New Territories, and the Swire Institute of Marine Science at the southern tip of Cape D'Aguilar on Hong Kong Island.
Main building
Constructed between 1910 and 1912, the Main Building is the university's oldest structure and was sponsored by Sir Hormusjee Naorojee Mody and designed by Architect Messrs Leigh & Orange. It is built in the post-renaissance Edwardian Baroque style with red brick and granite and has two courtyards. The main elevation is articulated by four turrets with a central clock tower (a gift from Sir Paul Chater in 1930). The two courtyards were added in the south in 1952 and one floor in the end block in 1958. The building was originally used as classrooms and laboratories for the Faculty of Medicine and Engineering and was later the home of departments within the Faculty of Arts. The central Great Hall (Loke Yew Hall) is named after Loke Yew, a Malayan benefactor of the university in its early years. It became a declared monument in 1984.
Swire building
Around 1980, the Swire Group sponsored the building of a new residential hall in the eastern end of the campus. The new student residence was named Swire Building in honour of this sponsorship. The building was officially opened by Mr John Anthony Swire on 11 November 1980. In 1983, the colour orange was chosen to be the hall colour in the second Annual General Meeting since the colour was used as the background colour during the first open day of Swire Hall and no other halls were using orange as their hall colour.
In 1983, Mrs J. Lau (Director of Centre Media Resources) provided a design for the hall logo. The Swire Hall Students' Association, HKUSU, then made some amendments to that design. The logo shows the words 'S' and 'H'. The design of the word 'S' looks like two hands holding each other, signifying that all hall-mates should co-operate with each other, and promoting the hall motto 'Unity and Sincerity'.
Hung Hing Ying Building
Financed by Sir Paul Chater, Professor G. P. Jordan and others, it was opened in 1919 by the Governor of Hong Kong Sir Reginald Edward Stubbs and housed the students' union. After World War II, the building was used temporarily for administrative purposes. The East Wing was added in 1960. The building was converted into the Senior Common Room in 1974. It was named in honour of Mr Hung Hing-Ying in 1986 for his family's donations to the university. The building was subsequently used again for administrative purposes, and housed Department of Music and the Music Library until early 2013. It is currently used by the Development & Alumni Affairs Office. The two-storey Edwardian style structure is characterised by a central dome and the use of red brick to emulate the Main Building opposite. The building became a declared monument in 1995.
Tang Chi Ngong Building
The idea to establish a school of Chinese was proposed in the inter-war period. Construction of the premises began in 1929 following a donation from Tang Chi-ngong, father of the philanthropist Sir Tang Shiu-kin, after whom the building was named. It was opened by Sir William Peel, Governor of Hong Kong, in 1931 and since then further donations have been received for the endowment of teaching Chinese language and literature. The building has been used for other purposes since the 1970s but the name remained unchanged. It housed the Centre of Asian Studies until 2012 and now houses the Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole. This three-storey flat-roofed structure is surfaced with Shanghai plaster and became a declared monument in 1995.
Centennial campus
To provide additional space for students under the new four-year undergraduate curriculum the Centennial Campus was built at the western end of the main campus, which was previously occupied by the Water Supplies Department. The construction of the campus started in late 2009, and was completed in 2012, the first year of the introduction of the new academic structure in Hong Kong. In 2012, the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Social Sciences moved to the Centennial Campus.
Academics
Admission
Admission to HKU is highly competitive. In 2016, the university received around 40,000 applications for undergraduate studies, over 16,000 of which were from outside the Hong Kong schools' system. For Mainland China applicants, the enrollment rate was 1 student for every 21 applications.
Undergraduate candidates are selected according to their relative merit in the local public examination (HKDSE) and apply online via JUPAS. Other applicants, including overseas students or ones taking other examinations, are classified as non-JUPAS applicants who are required to apply via the official website, where postgraduate applications may also be made. Cantonese credit-courses for mainland Chinese and Taiwan students, and ab initio Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese credit-courses for international and exchange students are offered by the Chinese Language Centre, School of Chinese.
Research
The university is a founding member of Universitas 21, an international consortium of research-led universities, and a member of the Association for Pacific Rim Universities, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, Washington University in St. Louis's McDonnell International Scholars Academy, and many others. HKU benefits from a large operating budget supplied by high levels of government funding compared to many Western countries. In 2018/19, the Research Grants Council (RGC) granted HKU a total research funding of HK$12,127 million (41.3% of overall RGC funding), which was the highest among all universities in Hong Kong. HKU professors were among the highest paid in the world as well, having salaries far exceeding those of their US counterparts in private universities.
HKU research output, researchers, projects, patents and theses are profiled and made publicly available in the HKU Scholars Hub. 100 members of academic staff (>10% of professoriate staff) from HKU are ranked among the world's top 1% of scientists by the Thomson Reuters' Essential Science Indicators, by means of the citations recorded on their publications. The university has the largest number of research postgraduate students in Hong Kong, making up approximately 10% of the total student population. All ten faculties and departments provide teaching and supervision for research (MPhil and PhD) students with administration undertaken by the Graduate School. In 2025, about 434 HKU scholars are listed in Stanford University's latest 2025 Top 2% Scientists for the “Single recent year” category, while another 376 made it to the “Career Long” category. Among these scholars, Xiang Zhang (HKU President) and Guochun Zhao are both ranked the top 10 globally in their respective areas.
The University Grants Committee delivered the idea of “knowledge transfer” among the community and universities. From the academic year 2009/10, a yearly recurrent funding for universities to invest in knowledge transfer has been approved by the Legislative Council. Therefore, HKU has established the Knowledge Exchange Office in 2010.
Libraries and museums
thumb|right|The University Museum and Art Gallery from Bonham Road
HKU Libraries (HKUL) was established in 1912, being the oldest academic library in Hong Kong with over 2.3 million current holdings. It comprises the Main Library and six specialist branch libraries: the Dental, Education, Fung Ping Shan (East Asian Language), Yu Chun Keung Medical, Lui Che Woo Law, and Music libraries. They are located in buildings around the campus with varying opening hours. A web-based library catalogue, DRAGON, allows one to search HKUL's books, journals and other resources.
The HKUL Digital Initiatives, through its digitisation projects, has opened up online access to local collections originally in print format. The first HKUL Digital Initiative, ExamBase, was launched in 1996 and other projects of scholarly interests were introduced. More digital projects are being developed to provide continuous access to digital content and services. It provides open access to Chinese and English academic and medical periodicals published in Hong Kong.
The three-storey Fung Ping Shan Building was erected in 1932 originally as a library for Chinese books. Named after its donor, the building consists of masonry on the ground level surmounted by a two-storey red-brick structure with ornamental columns topped by a pediment over its entrance. Since 1962, the Chinese books collection, now known as the Fung Ping Shan Library, was transferred to the university's Main Library and the whole building was converted into a museum for Chinese art and archaeology. Among its collections are ceramics, pottery and bronze sculptures. In 1996, the lowest three floors of the new Tsui Building were added to the old building to form the University Museum and Art Gallery.