CUHK head to explore creating Hong Kong college system for postgraduates

The new president of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has said he will explore setting up a college system for master’s and doctoral students that follows the institution’s existing model for undergraduates to boost holistic learning.

Professor Dennis Lo Yuk-ming also said he would stick to the principles of fairness and equality when it came to allocating resources, noting the humanities and the sciences were of equal importance.

The top molecular geneticist, who took office as the ninth president of CUHK last week, outlined his thoughts on the university’s strategy from 2026 to 2030 in its latest newsletter, which was published on Wednesday.

Lo said his personal priority was to strengthen the university’s unique college system to promote holistic learning, adding that its expansion to postgraduate students would be based on CUHK’s existing model for undergraduates.

CUHK is the only university in Hong Kong to offer a collegiate system for full-time undergraduates. Students are divided into nine colleges, which provide accommodation, dining halls, pastoral care and whole-person education for members.

“I learned from my experience in graduate colleges at Oxford and Cambridge that the collegiate learning environment is crucial for master’s and doctoral students, too. I will therefore explore the possibility of making this approach work at CUHK,” Lo said.

Lo, who graduated from both UK universities, said his own time at graduate colleges made him deeply appreciative of how important it was to set up such dedicated spaces for postgraduate students.