The Government today hosted a meeting to receive a briefing from Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST) President Prof Nancy Ip and her team on the next steps for implementing the establishment of the new medical school.

The meeting was co-chaired by Secretary for Health Prof Lo Chung-mau and Secretary for Education Choi Yuk-lin.

The Government announced earlier that the Chief Executive-in-Council had approved in principle that the new medical school be established by the HKUST. The Task Group on New Medical School will support and closely monitor the work in the implementation stage to ensure that the HKUST achieves the set milestones in a progressive manner.

Working groups will be set up under the task group to provide advice and support in areas such as curriculum development, financial and financing arrangements, staffing, campus development, and teaching hospital arrangements. Experts in the respective fields will be invited to participate in the tasks of the working groups.

The Government will require the HKUST to regularly report progress to and seek views from the working groups, and report to the task group as necessary.

Prof Lo said discussions were held on the overall work direction for the implementation stage of establishing the medical school at today’s meeting. He added that the task group will regularly meet the university representatives starting from the first quarter of next year to understand the progress.

“The Government expects to officially sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the HKUST early next year, the content of which will cover funding arrangements, curriculum accreditation, teaching hospital resources, as well as recruitment of teaching staff, and more. We expect the HKUST to fully co-operate with the Task Group and its working groups on the preparatory work.”

Ms Choi supplemented: “The establishment of the new medical school is expected to play a leading role in shaping innovative approaches to medical education by embracing interdisciplinary learning, advancing scientific research development, and attracting both local and international talent, to dovetail with the national blueprint of the 2024-2035 master plan on building China into a leading country in education and the vision of building Hong Kong into an international post-secondary education hub.”