Human resources

We will:

• ensure that our remuneration packages are sufficiently competitive to support the recruitment and retention of high calibre staff in an international market;
• ensure a smooth transition to Hong Kong for staff recruited from overseas. This will include enhanced support in respect of immigration formalities, housing and school arrangements;
• develop an increasingly diverse staffing profile through both recruitment and career development. In particular, we will ensure that all departments employ strategies so as to enable women to better excel;
• provide a performance management system that fosters and rewards performance, motivates staff and aligns their efforts with University objectives;
• strengthen support arrangements for all groups of staff, including courses for personal and professional development, mentoring and the use of regular opportunities to review progress and promote career development; and
• enhance our leadership and management capability and introduce effective succession planning.

Financial reforms

We will:

• improve our financial sustainability through increasing income generation and improved efficiency in planning and prioritisation of resource application in alignment with University strategic objectives;
• increase funding from non-government sources and generate a sufficient recurrent surplus;
• embed a more coherent approach to budget setting and monitoring across faculties, departments and services, looking to reduce overheads and enhance efficiency. Resources that are associated with inefficient, ineffective or outmoded programmes will be redeployed towards areas of strategic priority;
• review the ways in which we allocate resources and charge costs;
• review the level of investment in administrative services and professional services; and
• enhance our earned income revenues from all sources.

Expenditure

In order to effectively maintain recurrent and capital expenditure at a level that secures the University’s international competitiveness, we will strengthen and diversify our revenues to generate an annual surplus.

Estates

We will also invest in our estate to support our academic priorities and new initiatives, and to facilitate new or improved ways of working or increased efficiencies. We will:

• acquire and develop new space to meet our academic ambitions;
• invest in the estate where this will facilitate new or improved ways of working, increased efficiencies, and improved opportunities for interdisciplinary working;
• implement a more proactive and prioritised system of capital allocation;
• review the way in which we manage our property assets, and explore a new model for facilities management that ensures greater accountability in the use and allocation of space;
• strengthen the control of overseas building developments;
• balance capital spending on refurbishing, renewing and replacing the existing estates with the delivery of new buildings to meet research, education and knowledge exchange needs; and
• develop a Property Asset Health Policy and Framework and develop a programme that ensures the required amount of spending on life cycle replacement and repairs/maintenance needed to keep the assets in the necessary condition for the essential quality of our academic, research, social and cultural facilities.

Information technology

We will:

• invest in information technologies that enhance the capacity of HKU’s academic communities to collaborate with each other and with global partners, and that support the student experience;
• provide professional support, consistent processes and the appropriate equipment to meet the digital needs of our staff and students;
• continue to develop flexible, technology-enhanced teaching and learning spaces, and to support the operations of a highly resilient, secure and efficient electronic environment for study and work;
• enhance the computing facilities available to support research, in particular by involvement in regional and national resource centres, by the provision of infrastructure for high-performance computing and efficient data management, by developing and deploying tools for collaborative working, and by fostering cooperative partnerships with international network and computing consortia on global research interests;
• implement robust and up-to-date systems in the cloud era with minimum necessary functionality to support all aspects of the student experience in a cost effective way;
• introduce new physical and wireless networking that will allow high-bandwidth, device-neutral and highly resilient communications capabilities, and introduce applications reaping the benefits of the latest network advancements and Internet innovations for enabling innovations in teaching, learning, research and administration; and
• employ the best management practices in information technology to enhance the University’s administrative and professional services.

Alumni relations

Our objectives for alumni relations reflect the University’s overarching priority to develop a global network and to promote international collaborations, including a proactive and systematic engagement of a growing donor community and alumni in Hong Kong, mainland China and overseas. We will:

• expand and strengthen our relationship with our alumni networks through a streamlined database management system;
• focus our fundraising and outreach efforts on areas that advance the strategic goals of the University;
• identify new opportunities to grow our base by engaging untapped philanthropic potential locally and worldwide in support of key University initiatives; and
• strengthen our HKU ambassador scheme by actively involving our alumni and other members of the HKU family.

Communications and branding

Communication with our alumni, donors, partners and key stakeholders to enhance their awareness of the major developments of the University is an absolute priority. Building on our local, regional and international connections and expertise, we will:

• strengthen media relations through proactive and positive engagement with our media partners;
• heighten visibility of the HKU brand by showcasing our advances in international standing; and
• work towards building a strong and sustainable international reputation, powered by our aspirations to be Asia’s Global University.