The future development of viable and sustainable world trade among emerging nations in Asia, including China, is dependent on an educated workforce. For the past decade at least, China has been an importer of education, in particular, post-secondary education; with Chinese students flocking to universities and colleges (both public and private) in North America, Europe and Australia.
Education and manpower training is now a serious commercial industry, and the long established institutions of higher education in Hong Kong are uniquely positioned and fully capable of taking advantage of this situation, as has been the case with banking, manufacturing and finance. Among these institutions, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has been at the forefront in providing expertise and intellectual exchange for the Chinese mainland. The World Trade Organization (WTO) recognized this by designating HKU as the WTO Regional Training Centre for government representatives from 32 countries in the region.
Spearheading this educational change in China is Professor Lap-Chee Tsui, the new Vice- Chancellor (President) of the University of Hong Kong. Professor Tsui brings a unique perspective to this role. Born in Shanghai, educated in Hong Kong and the USA, Professor Tsui spent 20 years in Canada, most of it, at the Hospital for Sick Children where he was Geneticist-in-Chief and Head of the Genetics and Genomic Biology Program of the Research Institute. Professor Tsui joined HKU in 2002, bringing to the role of Vice-Chancellor, his experience as a researcher, teacher and an internationally renowned geneticist in his own right, having led the discovery of the gene that causes cystic fibrosis. Professor Tsui will join us on October 29th to share his thoughts on the changing educational landscape in Hong Kong and more broadly across China and what this means for countries like Canada, who currently have a large number of Asian students pursuing higher education here.
