The president of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has said his institution will study how to use research funding to attract top academics who left US institutions amid the Trump administration’s battle with higher education in the country.
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Professor Dennis Lo Yuk-ming also said the recent tariff tensions between China and the US had driven up the prices of equipment and chemicals from the country, and his university found it difficult to procure them for research purposes.
Lo, who was installed as the ninth vice-chancellor and president of CUHK in a ceremony on Tuesday, said in his address that Hong Kong was now in an ever-changing era and was constantly facing complex and unexpected clashes.
“As a knowledge hub and cradle of talent, the university has to target, show resilience and be flexible in dealing with storms more than ever before,” he said.
Lo said with some academics in the US leaving the country following President Donald Trump’s recent clash with elite private universities, his team would study how to offer more research subsidies to attract these foreign scholars.
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“I hope CUHK will become their first choice … geopolitics brings crises and opportunities and allows us to have opportunities to hire academics elsewhere,” he said.
But he said the university found it harder and more expensive to purchase some equipment and reagents for its Shenzhen Research Institute.