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Tag: Hong Kong

HKAPA Open Day Presents Over A Hundred Free Performing Arts Activities

Posted on by Afifah Darke

The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) will present its annual Open Day on March 3 this year, filled with over a hundred free performing arts events prepared by students and faculty from six Schools on the Wanchai Main Campus and the Béthanie Landmark Heritage Campus in Pokfulam of the Academy. Some activities will make use of artificial intelligence (AI) and art technology, providing visitors with an immensely joyful and unique experience.

A wide array of performing arts activities includes a performance by Junior Symphony Orchestra, concerts of Chinese and Western music, excerpt performances of musicals, drama, Cantonese opera, Dance open classes, film and television screenings, as well as guided tours for immersive performing arts activities. Furthermore, visitors can even go to backstage to discover the secrets behind the scenes, including stage design, props and costumes making, as well as stage effects exhibitions, indulging themselves in the world of performing arts on the day. The “HKAPA Digital Stage @Lib” of the Academy Library also allows visitors to step onto different stages as the character of the Academy productions virtually and take a digital photo.

The Academy heartily welcomes everyone to embark on an amazing journey exploring the integration of AI and art technology in performing arts.

About The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (www.hkapa.edu)

The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA), established by The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts Ordinance in 1984, is a leading tertiary institution in the performing arts in Asia. It provides professional undergraduate education and practice-based postgraduate studies. The study encompasses Chinese Opera, Dance, Drama, Film and Television, Music, and Theatre and Entertainment Arts. Its educational philosophy reflects the cultural diversity of Hong Kong with emphasis on Chinese and Western traditions, and interdisciplinary learning. Since 2008, the Academy has attained the Programme Area Accreditation (PAA) status awarded by the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ) to self-monitor and accredit its own undergraduate and post-secondary programmes in the five programme areas of Dance, Drama, Film and Television, Music, and Theatre and Entertainment Arts. Since 2016, the PAA status has been extended to cover Master’s Degree programmes and below; and since 2023, the programmes operated by the School of Chinese Opera accredited by HKCAAVQ has also received PAA status for its post-secondary and undergraduate programmes.

Besides the main campus in Wanchai, Béthanie, the site of the Academy’s Landmark Heritage Campus in Pokfulam, has housed training facilities for the School of Film and Television since 2006.

In the QS University Rankings announced in 2023, the Academy ranks 1st in Asia and 13th in the world in the Performing Arts category.

HKAPA Open Day 2024
Sunday, March 3, 2024

Opening Hours

Wanchai Main Campus: 10 am – 5 pm

Béthanie Landmark Heritage Campus: 1 pm – 5 pm*

*Free shuttle bus services between the Wanchai Main Campus and the Béthanie Landmark Heritage Campus in Pokfulam will be provided on a first-come-first-served basis

Free admission, no registration required. For programme details, please visit https://www.hkapa.edu/event/hkapa-open-day2024 and the social media channels of the Academy.

Trailer of HKAPA Open Day 2024: https://youtu.be/1A79I2jMJe

Using the digital tools of the future to boost our understanding of Asia’s past

Posted on by Editorial Team

Today’s historians are able to deploy a range of digital technologies to identify new research sources, analyse historical patterns and uncover once-marginalised voices. They can also visualise, present, and disseminate historical materials and findings, through digital media, and via Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality simulations, to reach ever wider audiences. Most excitingly, the possibilities of some of the latest developments, such as in the field of generative AI, are still yet to be fully explored.

“We could train an AI bot with text from the Han Dynasty, from around 2,000 years ago,” explains Professor Leung, Head of Lingnan University’s Department of History. “Once properly trained, we could then talk to a ‘person’ from the Han Dynasty.”

Prof Leung believes such technologies are opening up unprecedented opportunities for researchers, teachers and students, and enabling the general public to engage with and appreciate history, as never before. To support those aiming to seize these opportunities, Lingnan’s Department of History will launch its new MA programme in Digital History in Global Asia (DHGA) in September 2024.

Lingnan University’s new MA in Digital History in Global Asia

The DHGA will be the first MA of its kind, both within Hong Kong and the wider region, and Lingnan’s liberal arts ethos combined with the Department of History’s teaching talent, make the university the ideal home for such a programme.

“We hope to train our students to, first, use the tools really well and then to understand the meaning of the new data that is generated,” Prof Leung says.

The focus on Asia’s global past in the programme is intended to provide students with concrete material to apply the digital tools to. What’s more, many of the early developments in the digital humanities, digital history and geographical information systems, were made by scholars in Asian studies.

“One of the first corpuses of text fully digitised was the Buddhist corpus,” Prof Leung notes. This track record provides the MA with deep foundations to build on, and Asia continues to be at the forefront of the evolution of digital history.

Preparation for an exciting future

The skills and understandings to be gained on the DHGA programme are in demand in a range of fields, such as education, the creative media, cultural management, heritage preservation, information science, programming, and academia.

The programme’s four core courses are designed to provide foundational knowledge, while the elective courses will explore digital tools and their potential uses. Students will learn to use a range of digital applications for historical research, including: QGIS (Geographic information Systems mapping); Gephi, Tableau, Excel and other database software, and; SketchUp and Visual Novel, for 3D rendering and visual storytelling.

When it comes to the DHGA’s final capstone project, Prof Leung says he wants students to make their own personal choice of topic, one that is not only relevant but also that they find inspiring. “It will really depend on the specific interests of the students, but we do want it to have a very concrete, substantive digital component.”

EdUHK establishes research network with IOE of UCL

Posted on by eduhk

The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) announced the establishment of a new collaborative research network with the Institute of Education (IOE), University College London (UCL) – an institution which has been recognised as the top-ranked institution in the discipline of Education & Training by the QS World University Rankings every year since 2014.

With the aim of fostering intellectual dialogue and promoting innovative research on critical issues in education, the network will leverage the unique strengths and expertise of both universities to advance theoretical understanding and practical applications in various fields, particularly in language and education.

Under the new network, a wide range of research topics will be explored, including intercultural communication, translanguaging, family language policy, language and identity, well-being, technology-assisted/digital learning and teaching, and teacher education. The network will provide an inclusive platform for researchers, education practitioners, policy makers, and research students to engage in critical discourse, generate new knowledge, and contribute to the advancement of global education.

The team from IOE, UCL will be co-led by Professor John O\’Regan, Professor of Critical Applied Linguistics and Vice-Dean (International). The team from EdUHK will be co-led by Dean of Graduate School Professor Michelle Gu Mingyue and President Professor John Lee Chi-Kin. Serving as advisers will be experts and scholars from both universities, including Professor Angel Lin Mei-yi, Chair Professor of Language, Literacy, and Social Semiotics in Education from EdUHK.

Professor John Lee said, “I firmly believe that this collaboration will not only enrich the academic communities of both universities, but also have a profound impact on education research and practices worldwide.”

EdUHK Professor Keith Ho named as Highly Cited Researcher for 6th consecutive year

Posted on by eduhk

Professor Keith Ho Wing-kei, Acting Head of the Department of Science and Environmental Studies, has been named in the 2023 Highly Cited Researchers list released by Clarivate Analytics. This is the sixth consecutive year Professor Ho has been named on the list, which charts the world’s most influential researchers. Those on the list have demonstrated exceptional performance by producing multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citation for their field. In 2023, only 6,849 researchers in 20 research areas, across multiple fields and from over 67 countries and regions, have earned this exclusive distinction.

Professor Ho was also named among the top 2% most-cited scientists in the world in the latest annual list published by Stanford University. He ranked 43rd in 2022 out of nearly 39,000 physical chemistry scholars, demonstrating the high citation rate and significant impact of his research output.

The full 2023 Highly Cited Researchers list can be found here.

A new Education Policy and Management Concentration for a new world of Higher Education

Posted on by Editorial Team

For some time the traditional forms of governance and practice in higher education had been coming under challenge from phenomena such as increased student mobility and advances in digital technology. However, the emergency response that was necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic has hastened a fundamental rethink about the ways in which teaching should be delivered in the future.

Add to this the specific opportunities, and potential challenges, afforded by the latest AI technology and, from a regional perspective, the burgeoning demand for skilled professionals to promote good governance in the higher education sector in the Greater Bay Area, and the need for a new Education Policy and Management Concentration the under the Doctor of Policy Studies programme is clear.

Lingnan perfectly placed to deliver

Lingnan University’s Doctor of Policy Studies (DPS) programme is already the only professional doctorate in policy studies in the Greater China region. However, as DPS Programme Director Professor Maggie Lau explains, Lingnan’s School of Graduate Studies listened to the feedback from graduates from the existing successful programme. “We learned from students from previous cohorts that they wanted more courses focused specifically on higher education,” she points out.

Lingnan’s response has been to develop a new Education Policy and Management (EPM) Concentration within the DPS programme. The EPM Concentration, which will be launched in September 2024, is an advanced study programme focusing on international higher education, policy and governance, as well as the management and leadership issues involved in managing a contemporary university. The Concentration will have a strong experiential learning element and equip graduates for roles in public and private universities, consultancy agencies and think tanks.

To deliver this new programme Lingnan will call not only upon its own expert faculty but also, through its existing and newly developed partnerships, to specialists from institutions within the region and across the globe. Lingnan University is a long-standing member of the Asia Pacific Higher Education Research Partnership, an international platform promoting inter-university research in higher education. While its School of Graduate Studies has recently secured partnership agreements with the Higher Education Institute of Beijing University of Technology, with Hang Seng University of Hong Kong and with Durham University in the UK. Colleagues from these institutions, who have the relevant research and teaching experience, will form the teaching team for some of the Concentration’s courses and share in the mentoring and supervision of its students.

The structure of the new EPM Concentration

Since it’s infeasible for students to acquire all the key understandings required solely from classroom teaching, the new concentration places an emphasis on experiential learning. The relevant EPM courses will centre around a study trip, a dialogue with policy practitioners, a symposium, and engagement with the media.

“As regards experiential learning, I think it’s really important that we learn from the different practices which exist in other countries and places,” Prof Lau says. “That’s why it’s important to join symposiums and conferences.”

As students are exposed to ideas and practices which originate both within the region and internationally, they can evaluate what does and doesn’t seem to work.

Four new courses will be introduced to the DPS programme for this new Concentration, and these will be taught by Lingnan University’s partner institutions. The courses are: Managing Change in Education – Study Trip to Mainland China; Asia Pacific Higher Education Research Partnership Symposium; Internationalisation of Higher Education:  Theories and Practices, and Seminar on Managing Change in Education: Comparative Perspectives.

To provide students with a solid foundation in policy studies theory and practice, four core courses will be retained from the original DPS programme. These are: Globalisation, Changing Governance and Policy Analysis; Research Methods in Policy Studies; Guided Study in Policy Issues, and Policy Dissemination and Strategic Communication.

While two second year courses – Guided Study in Policy Issues, and Policy Dissemination and Strategic Communication – will help prepare students for the individual project they will pursue in their third year.

This full-time programme will take a minimum of three years and a maximum of five years to complete.

An individual policy studies project

The new concentration will offer students the opportunity to pursue their own individual policy studies project in their final year. In this way they can contribute to the advancement of knowledge, and the development of the Greater Bay Area, through independent and original research from both comparative and international perspectives.

Prof Lau cites some examples of the types of issues and topics students from previous DPS cohorts of students could choose to tackle in part of the programme: Research on the Implementation Approaches and Development Path of Basic Education Internationalisation in Shenzhen; University Stakeholders’ Perceptions of Quality Assurance Reforms in Pakistan: The Role of Borrowing and Lending Policy, and; A Comparative Study of Distance Higher Education in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan—Regulation, Quality, Assurance and Their Impact on Teaching.

EdUHK Wins First iENA 2023 Gold Medal

Posted on by eduhk

The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) has won four awards including its first-ever Gold Medal at the International Trade Fair “Ideas-Inventions-New Products” 2023, held in Nuremberg, Germany. EdUHK is the only university in Hong Kong to win gold at this year\’s event, making the University’s achievement particularly noteworthy.

iENA serves as a global hotspot for inventors and innovative minds to present their ideas, inventions, and new products. In the 2023 trade fair, held between 28 and 30 October 2023, 500 inventions from 30 countries and regions were showcased.

Dr Steve Mung Wai-yin, Research Assistant Professor of the Research and Development Office won the Gold Medal in the Safety category, with his pioneering ‘Fall Detection System for Smart City’. The University also claimed bronze awards in the Greentech, Chemistry, and EdTech categories, demonstrating its commitment to sustainable and educational innovation.

Award-winning Projects

Project Name Principal Investigator(s) Description Medal
Fall Detection System for Smart City Dr Steve Mung Wai-yin, Research Assistant Professor at the Research and Development Office Falling in a private area can mean there is no immediate treatment, which can prove fatal. A smart fall detection system has been developed to detect people’s status in private areas, such as accessible toilets, and prevent delayed treatment. This originated system includes the server and on-site fall detection hardware which are connected by Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) technology. The hardware includes a microcontroller unit and two thermal sensors. The server can then calculate the data detected by the thermal sensor and send alert signals to the backend user for detection of abnormalities. Gold Medal
Audio-Tactile Chinese Characters: Bringing Multisensory & Novel Learning Experience to People with Visual Impairment and Special Needs Dr Hung Keung, Associate Professor at the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts Chinese radicals in several 3D tactile character models allow students to experience the structural formation of Chinese characters through touch and sound. This multi-sensory learning kit is designed to break visual and social learning barriers, especially for people with visual impairment or special needs. Bronze Medal
Nano-Sensor System for Meat and Seafood Monitoring Professor Stephen Chow Cheuk-fai, Professor (Practice) at the Department of Science and Environmental Studies A food monitoring device that offers a new and convenient way to monitor food safety, with a series of chemo sensors to detect the chemical substance released from rotting food. Bronze Medal
Rapid Quantification of Microplastics Using Total Organic Carbon Analysis with Simple Sample Pretreatment Dr Tsang Yiu-fai, Associate Professor at the Department of Science and Environmental Studies An all-in-one semi-automatic sample pre-treatment device that can efficiently and accurately quantify microplastic abundance in water and slug samples. Bronze Medal

Integrating Technology and Innovation in Liberal Arts: Highlights from the Pre-Summit APAC 2023 at Lingnan University

Posted on by Editorial Team

The QS Higher Education APAC Summit 2023, a crucial event for academics and administrators, took place in Kuala Lumpur from 7-9 November 2023. As a significant precursor, Lingnan University hosted a Pre-Summit APAC 2023 at its Hong Kong campus on 3 November 2023. The Pre-Summit primarily focused on liberal arts, exploring the ongoing evolution of these disciplines and the growing impact of technology inside and outside the classroom.

This hybrid event drew an audience of 400, with influential figures from the Asia-Pacific region discussing the future evolution of arts and humanities disciplines and their implications for universities, students, and teaching and learning approaches.

Professor S. Joe Qin, Lingnan’s President, highlighted the significant development in China’s higher education system, with a growing emphasis on innovation, entrepreneurship, internationalisation, and student outcomes. He stressed that forward-looking institutions must commit to change and foster the outlook and partnerships necessary for keeping pace with the digital era.

The agenda included discussions on the latest uses of technology in and beyond the classroom and specific steps liberal arts universities are taking to adapt and thrive in this new age. In his keynote address, Professor Michael Hui, Vice-Rector of Academic Affairs at the University of Macau, emphasized the need to integrate technology into all aspects of campus life and promote interdisciplinary collaboration.

In a subsequent session, the special President’s Forum focused on “The Art of STEM”. Speakers discussed how to integrate scientific thinking into a liberal arts curriculum, agreeing that all students will require STEM-related skills for their research projects, future careers, and meaningful contributions to society.

Professor Diana Laurillard, Professor of Learning with Digital Technologies, UCL Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, University College London, in her keynote at the Pre-Summit APAC 2023, discussed the importance of digital technology in enhancing student engagement and critical thinking in a liberal arts education. She highlighted the need for teachers’ confidence in delivering online content and for assessments to reflect real-world digital realities.

In a panel discussion, academics and a tech CEO emphasized the importance of liberal arts education in fostering global understanding and employability. They discussed the value of internationalization, cultural exchange programs, industry-academic collaboration, and the critical role of liberal arts education in tackling societal issues like nuclear power safety.

In summary, the QS Higher Education APAC Pre-Summit 2023 underscored the critical and evolving role of liberal arts in higher education. The discussions emphasized the need for integrating technology, fostering internationalization, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration, and preparing students for a rapidly changing world. The event highlighted that universities, teachers, and students must embrace change, collaborate broadly, and harness the power of technology to enhance learning and address complex societal issues.

Please follow this link for highlights from the keynote speeches, President’s Forum, and Panel Discussion.

More than half of COVID-19 patients have post-disease syndrome: HKBU study

Posted on by HKBUCPRO

The School of Chinese Medicine at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) found that 55% of the patients who sought medical treatment from the “HKBU Chinese Medicine Telemedicine Centre Against COVID-19” during the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic continued to experience at least one long COVID symptom for six months to a year after diagnosed with an infection. The most common symptoms are fatigue, brain fog and cough.

The study also revealed that patients who took Chinese medicine after COVID-19 infection took a shorter time to test negative in rapid tests, and experienced significant symptom relief compared to patients who did not take Chinese medicine.

The research findings have been published in a number of papers in international academic journals including the Journal of Medical Virology and The American Journal of Chinese Medicine.

HKBU established the “HKBU Chinese Medicine Telemedicine Centre Against COVID-19” in 2021 during the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong to provide free telemedical services for COVID-19 patients. Making reference to the treatment protocols and clinical experiences in Mainland China, the expert team of HKBU’s School of Chinese Medicine formulated the “Chinese Medicine Clinical Guidelines for COVID-19 in Hong Kong” as the University’s clinical diagnosis and treatment standards for COVID-19. The Telemedicine Centre follows the guidelines to provide diagnosis, treatment, and prevention services to COVID-19 patients, close contacts, and caregivers.

Coughing is the most common early symptom of infection

The HKBU research team led by Professor Bian Zhaoxiang, Director of the Clinical Division at the School of Chinese Medicine, conducted a retrospective study using patient statistics collected by the Telemedicine Centre during the fifth wave of the pandemic. The team analysed the symptoms in the first four weeks of about 13,000 patients who were infected with COVID-19 from mid-March to early May in 2022 and underwent home isolation.

The results showed that 93% of patients experienced at least one symptom. The most common symptoms during the first week of infection were cough (91%), sputum (75%), dry throat (50%) and sore throat (44%). 17% of patients still had these symptoms four weeks after infection. Although the symptoms gradually subsided over time, the prevalence of fatigue increased.

Chinese medicine accelerates viral clearance

Among this batch of patients, the research team selected 311 patients who had taken Chinese medicine for five days within 10 days after diagnosis, and another 311 patients who had not taken any Chine medicine during the same period to evaluate the efficacy of Chinese medicine.

The results showed that patients who took Chinese medicine within 10 days after COVID-19 infection needed an average of seven days to test negative in rapid tests, and experienced an average of four symptoms, which were significantly milder compared to patients who didn’t take Chinese medicine. The average time to test negative for patients who did not take Chinese medicine was eight days, and they experienced an average of 11 symptoms. The results show that Chinese medicine is an effective treatment for COVID-19 infection.

Over half of the patients experience long COVID after six months

The research team conducted a follow-up telephone survey from November 2022 to January 2023 with 6,242 COVID-19 patients who sought medical consultation at the Telemedicine Centre between December 2021 and May 2022 to understand their symptoms and risk factors after six months to a year of infection.

The study found that 55% of patients still experienced at least one long-term symptom, i.e. “long COVID” or “post-COVID syndrome”. The most common symptoms were fatigue (36%), brain fog (34%) and cough (31%). Furthermore, females, middle-aged persons, obese people, those with comorbidities such as ophthalmology or otorhinolaryngology diseases, digestive system diseases, respiratory diseases, hyperlipidemia and cardiovascular diseases, and patients with more initial symptoms were more likely to develop long COVID. However, there was no significant correlation between taking three or more doses of vaccine and the occurrence of long COVID.

Professor Bian said: “HKBU established the Telemedicine Centre during the COVID-19 outbreak to provide free treatments for COVID-19 patients. We analysed the Centre’s data to deepen the medical community’s understanding of the symptoms during the early and middle stages of COVID-19 infection as well as the post-COVID syndrome. It allows the public to understand the effectiveness of Chinese medicine in treating COVID-19. The study also shows that the tele-services of Chinese medicine can be an important component of Hong Kong’s healthcare and disease prevention system.”

HKBU-led research discovers therapeutic potential of hyodeoxycholic acid for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Posted on by HKBUCPRO

A research led by Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) has discovered that hyodeoxycholic acid (HDCA), a bile acid generated in human intestine, can reduce fat accumulation and inflammation in the liver, demonstrating its strong therapeutic potential for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The research also found that HDCA’s intervention in NAFLD works by reshaping the population of beneficial gut bacteria, which affects the metabolic interactions between the gut and the liver. The result highlighted the critical role of gut health in liver disease.

The research findings have been published in the renowned scientific journal Cell Metabolism. HKBU researchers will coordinate a phase I and II clinical trial in the Mainland to evaluate the safety and efficacy of HDCA for patients with fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes.

32% of adults suffer from NAFLD

NAFLD is a leading cause of chronic liver disease, characterised by the build-up of excessive fat in liver cells that is not caused by alcohol consumption. Its global prevalence has been increasing over time. A meta-analysis in 2022 estimated that 32% of the adult population is affected by NAFLD. Some people with NAFLD can develop non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, which is marked by liver inflammation and may progress to cirrhosis and liver failure. Currently, there are no therapeutic drugs available for sale on the market for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.

A research led by Professor Jia Wei, Acting Dean and Chair Professor in Chinese Medicine and Systems Biology of the School of Chinese Medicine at HKBU, discovered that HDCA offers promising potential as a pharmaceutical intervention for NAFLD. “Our research is a significant stride forward in understanding the pathophysiology of NAFLD, and it offers a potential new avenue for therapeutic intervention,” he said.

Therapeutic effects of HDCA

Professor Jia’s team found that individuals with NAFLD have lower levels of HDCA compared to those without NAFLD. In a cohort consisting of 178 patients with NAFLD and 73 healthy individuals, hyocholic acid species, including HDCA and its major metabolite glycohyodeoxycholic acid, comprises 0.5% of the bile acids in NAFLD patients, which is significantly lower than the 2% in healthy individuals. This observation led the team to explore HDCA’s potential therapeutic role.

A series of controlled experiments were conducted to evaluate the therapeutic effect of HDCA. The team orally fed HDCA to mouse models with NAFLD for eight weeks. The results showed that HDCA markedly reduced excessive lipid droplets, and improved hepatic inflammation, oral glucose tolerance (i.e. the blood glucose level after oral intake of glucose), and insulin sensitivity (i.e. the sensitivity of the body to the effects of insulin which helps the glucose to enter into the cells for use) compared to the control group. The results revealed that HDCA alleviated NAFLD conditions and the risk factors of NAFLD such as type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance.

Interestingly, the researchers found that HDCA did not exert its therapeutic effects on NAFLD by directly targeting liver cells. They evaluated the potential direct effect of HDCA on lipid accumulation in a mouse model. The results showed that lipid accumulation was barely affected by the HDCA. They hypothesised that HDCA induced gut microbiota alterations, which might contribute to the alleviation of NAFLD.

HDCA reshapes gut microbiota

The researchers observed that HDCA could improve the population of beneficial gut bacteria. Parabacteroides distasonis (P. distasonis), a member of the core microbiome in the human gut, sharply increased in the mouse model fed with high-fat food and administered with HDCA, compared with the control group fed with high-fat food only. The results revealed that HDCA provided a favorable environment for the thriving of P. distasonis, which regulates fatty acid metabolism as well as the hepatic bile acid synthesis pathways.

“The study underscores the crucial role of the gut-liver metabolic axis in disease management. We hope that the research findings on HDCA and the clinical trial to be conducted in the Mainland will provide more insights into the treatment of fatty liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis,” said Professor Jia.

Professor Jia has also led a research project investigating the molecular connections between metabolic-associated fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus, with a specific focus on host-gut microbiota interactions. The project has been awarded over HK$7.2 million in research funding from the Theme-based Research Scheme (13th round) under the Research Grants Council.

Lingnan University Invites Applications for its Distinguished Research Postgraduate Programmes for the 2024-25 Academic Year

Posted on by Editorial Team

Lingnan University, a distinguished institution in Hong Kong, is globally recognized for its commitment to quality education and impactful research. As a leading liberal arts university, Lingnan is renowned for its top-tier international faculty and strong emphasis on nurturing close relationships between staff and students. This creates a uniquely supportive environment for advanced studies in this vibrant and energetic city.

Established in Guangzhou in 1888, Lingnan University has a rich and illustrious history. It prospered in higher education under the names of Lingnan Xuexiao and Lingnan University until 1952, before being re-established in Hong Kong in 1967. Today, Lingnan’s goal is to evolve into a research-intensive liberal arts institution in the digital era, recognized globally for exceptional teaching, learning, research, and community engagement.

The university’s consistent performance in promoting sustainable development goals has been highlighted in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings. Lingnan has been ranked among the world’s top three for “Quality Education” for four consecutive years, most recently claiming the second spot globally. The university also secured a position among the top 100 universities in East Asia in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023 for its impressive performance in individual subjects.

In the latest Research Assessment Exercise 2020 conducted by the University Grants Committee (UGC), its research in humanities, business, and social sciences was classified as “World Leading” (4 star) and “Internationally Excellent” (3 star). Some research disciplines under business and social sciences also ranked 1st or 2nd among all public universities in Hong Kong in terms of the percentage of “World Leading” research work.

Currently, Lingnan University offers 27 MPhil and/or PhD programmes in Arts, Business, Science, and Social Sciences disciplines. The university ensures close and supportive thesis supervision through student-centered learning, one of its core values. This focus on the student is further enhanced by full-time PhD programmes in collaboration with Mainland universities, providing a broader range of learning opportunities, especially for interdisciplinary research studies.

Lingnan provides generous funding support to research postgraduate (RPg) students, including scholarships and sponsorships. These include competitive studentships, conference/field trip sponsorships, and overseas research visit scholarships, all designed to facilitate participation in various scholarly, academic/research-related, exchange, and experiential learning activities. Tuition waivers and subsidies on hostel accommodation may also be available.

The University is now inviting applications for the 2024-25 academic year, commencing in September 2024. Successful candidates will have the opportunity to pursue in-depth study in specific research areas. Applicants may seek admission to our PhD programmes via the UGC’s Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme by 1 December 2023 (no late applications will be accepted) or to our MPhil and PhD programmes via direct admission by 19 January 2024.

For more details regarding Lingnan RPg programmes, application methods, and requirements, please visit the University website at https://www.ln.edu.hk/rpg/.