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The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong and has classes conducted in the English language. Its motto is the Latin phrase Sapientia et Virtus (明德格物 ), meaning "wisdom and virtue" or sometimes cited as "Foresight & Social Conscience." The University is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Asia. Only during World War II did the university close temporarily.
The university's main campus covers about 16 hectares of land in the Bonham Road/ Pokfulam area of Hong Kong Island. It has a medical campus in the Southern District of Hong Kong, separate from the main campus, which includes Queen Mary's Hospital and research facilities.
The university also operates the Kadorrie Agricultural Research Center , which occupies 9.5 hectares of land in the New Territories, and the Swire Institute of Marine Science on the southern coast of Hong Kong Island.
The University of Hong Kong was established after the former Hong Kong College of Medicine , and was founded in 1877. Sir Frederick Lugard, the then-governor of Hong Kong, laid the foundation stone on March 16, 1910.
The University faced one of its biggest crises in 2000 when Dr. Robert Chung Ting-yiu, director of the Public Opinion Programme of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at HKU, alleged that he had received political pressure from Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa through the then Vice-Chancellor, Prof Cheng Yiu-chung , and Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof Wong Siu-lun , to discontinue his public opinion polls on the popularity ratings of Tung and his government. Although the allegations were denied by Tung and HKU, a controversy erupted over the question of political interference in academic freedom. HKU set up a three-member panel led by Justice Noel Power to investigate Chung's claims. After 11 days of open hearings in August, the panel concluded that there were what it called covert attempts to pressure Chung into discontinuing his polls. The panel concluded that Dr. Chung is 'an honest witness who was telling the truth in relation to the matters he is complaining about.', but 'neither Lo [The Chief Executive's Senior Special Assistant] nor the vice chancellor 'disclosed the full and truthful extent of what was said in [the] meetings. Both Prof. Cheng and Prof. Wong resigned just before the University Council met on September 9 to vote on whether or not to accept the panel's report.
Prof Ian Davies stepped in as Vice-Chancellor for about one year before a world-wide search selected Prof Lap-Chee Tsui as the new head of the University in 2001.The year 2001 marked the 90th Anniversary of the HKU. Growing with Hong Kong: HKU and its Graduates - The First 90 Years was published by the University Press in 2002 as an impact study about HKU's gradates in different field of Hong Kong.
The University's Chancellor is Tung Chee-hwa, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong. The Vice-Chancellor is Professor Lap-Chee Tsui, and the Pro-Vice-Chancellors are Professor C. F. Lee, Professor J. G. Malpas, Professor J. A. Spinks and Profess H. Tong. The academic staff population is over 800.
The student population of the University (including postgraduate students) was around 14,400 in 2001-2002, including over 5,300 postgraduate students.
Most of the undergraduate students admitted through the Joint Univerisity Programmes Admission Scheme (JUPAS) for the local Form 7 students while others will be admitted by Non-JUPAS scheme and Early Admission Scheme (EAS)
The University of Hong Kong has traditionally been the top university in Hong Kong academically. Recently, however, various deparments have slipped to second due to the meteoric rise of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
According to the magazine Asiaweek , the University of Hong Kong was ranked third in 2000 in multi-disciplines among other Asia's best universities. The business school is ranked the second for the MBA course, after the Chinese University of Hong Kong, in Asiaweek Magazine Asia's Best University Survey 2000 .
The University of Hong Kong was also ranked an amazing 39th among the world's top universities by the Times recently on www.thes.co.uk .