Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen

CUHK intends to further its goals regarding education in Mainland China and conduct its further development in China with a daily-tight relationship of cooperation and combination between Hong Kong and Mainland China.[4]

Shenzhen has experienced rapid transformation from a fishing-town to an international city in recent decades. However, education has become one of the weakest points of the fast-growing metropolis. The foundation of CUHK-Shenzhen is part of an effort to improve education offerings in the city.

In October 2009, CUHK started to expand its study opportunities in the Pearl River Delta, including considering a campus in Shenzhen.[5]

As the policies of Mainland China prohibit foreign institutions, including those in Hong Kong, to independently establish educational institutions in Mainland China, CUHK had to find a partner in Mainland for the establishment of the new campus via the regulation of "Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools",[6] in which case it signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the Shenzhen Municipal Government where the two institutions declared their intention to enhance collaboration in education by establishing a CUHK campus in Shenzhen on 6 February 2010.[7] Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (MoE) approved the plan of the new campus on 11 October 2012. On 19 March 2013, CUHK signed final agreements with Shenzhen University and the government of Shenzhen.[8] The MoE finally approved the establishment of CUHK (SZ) on 26 March 2014.[9]

Programmes at CUHK-Shenzhen are monitored by the senate of CUHK. The senate of CUHK is responsible for the approval of new programmes at CUHK-Shenzhen before the final decisions made by the MoE.[10]

CUHK degrees will be conferred to students of CUHK-Shenzhen who meet the requirements of corresponding degree programmes offered there.[11] The certificate of graduation from CUHK-Shenzhen will be conferred to graduating undergraduate students by MoE.[12]

The university intends to be one of the main drivers of the High Technological Park of Longgang, which is still under government planning.[13]

The administration of the campus has constructed several laboratories including:[14]

• Shenzhen Research Institute of Big Data
• Shenzhen Finance Institute
• Robot Institute of CUHK-Shenzhen
• Arieh Warshel Institute of Computational Biology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
• Kobilka Institute of Innovative Drug Discovery, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
• Hopcroft Institute for Advanced Study in Information Sciences, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
• Ciechanover Institute of Precision and Regenerative Medicine

Many of the printed resources inside the library were sent from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Inherited from CUHK, CUHK-Shenzhen also has a collegiate system. There are currently four colleges in CUHK (SZ). The first college will be named Shaw College as the last donation of money from Run Run Shaw was made for the development of CUHK-Shenzhen.[15]

So far, four schools have been built, with interdisciplinary programmes designed to address society's future needs of talents. The four schools are:[16]

• School of Science and Engineering (SSE)
• School of Management and Economics (SME)
• School of Humanities and Social Science (HSS)
• School of Life and Health Sciences (LHS)

The Governing Board of CUHK-Shenzhen is the highest administration institution of the campus. The chairman of the board is the Vice-Chancellor of CUHK, currently Rocky S. Tuan. The board consists of 16 members, with eight nominated each by CUHK and Shenzhen University respectively. The president of CUHK-Shenzhen is responsible for the management of CUHK-Shenzhen under the leadership of the Governing Board. This main structure of administration is chosen due to the limitations of the laws for "Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools". In 2013, the Governing Board appointed Professor Yangsheng Xu to be the first president of CUHK-Shenzhen.[17]

Professors at the university are recruited through a worldwide search. Most professors have PhDs from overseas. Some classes are taught by professors seconded from CUHK. Most of the professors and lecturers are Mainland-born with overseas citizenship, including Hong Kong permanent residency. The majority of English teachers are westerners, and all have overseas experience of teaching English as a foreign language.

Aviation Industry Corporation of China provides property management services for CUHK (SZ), such as logistics.

There are 44 student interest clubs with the official approval from the administration such as Model United Nations, English Animator and Cantonese learning club. There is also an extensive English Club organising over 30 faculties to hold weekly meetings with a small group of students for the purpose of practice and advancement of the English language.

The Preparation Council of Student Association (PCSA) started to prepare for the establishment of the Student Union (SU) from December 2014. The SU of Shenzhen campus of CUHK was established on 9 May 2015 by a general election among students inside the campus.

The Student Union consists of three parts:

· Student Union Standing Committees : a committee of Student Union has the authority to formulate and modify regulations, and conduct the meeting of Student Congress . (SUSC)

· Student Union Executive Committee: a committee of Student Union has the authority to make decisions and make ensures that these decisions are carried out. (SUEC)

· Student Union Supervision Committee: a committee of Student Union has supervisory power over some aspects of management decision-making. (SUOC)

The campus is located in No 2001 Longxiang Boulevard, Longcheng Street, Longgang District, which is in the northeastern part of Shenzhen, surrounded by mountainous area with distances of around 15 kilometres northeast of downtown Shenzhen and 30 kilometres north of CUHK in Sha Tin, Hong Kong.[2]

The site of the campus was formerly that of the cultural park of Universiade held in Shenzhen in 2011. The nearest shopping mall is "Galaxy Coco Park of Longgang" about one kilometre east of the campus, inside which there is a supermarket of Sam’s Club. The government of Shenzhen intends to develop an area of international universities based on former site of the Shenzhen Universiade Sports Centre in Longgang inside which CUHK-Shenzhen has become the first member.[18]

There are a variety of routes of buses in front of the southwest gate of the campus leading the way to the city centre of Longgang or city centre of Shenzhen.

The nearest subway station is "Universiade", which is located 1.2 kilometres southeast of the campus. It takes 38 minutes for Longgang Line of Shenzhen Metro to reach "Old Street", which is regarded as the core centre of Shenzhen. The journey to the checkpoint of "Luohu", or "Lo Wu" in Cantonese, takes around 45 minutes by subway.[19]

At present, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen has completed four institutes led by Nobel Laureates and Turing Award winner: the Arieh Warshel Institute of Computational Biology, the Kobilka Institute of Innovative Drug Discovery, the Ciechanover Institute of Precision and Regenerative Medicine, and the Hopcroft Institute for Advanced Study in Information Sciences.

The University also established a number of research platforms, including the Robot Institute of CUHK-Shenzhen, the Shenzhen Research Institute of Big Data, the State Joint Engineering Laboratory for Robotics and Intelligent Manufacturing, the Shenzhen Engineering Laboratory of Robot and Intelligent Manufacturing, the Shenzhen Finance Institute, the Institute for Data and Decision Analytics, The Future Network of Intelligence Institute, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Semiconductor Laser, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of IoT Intelligent System and Wireless Network Technology.[20]

Currently there are summer programmes, visiting programmes, exchange programmes, and programmes of further studies signed with other universities for students. The partnerships include those with universities in North America, Europe and Asia, such as The University of British Columbia.[21] and Copenhagen Business School. Officers of related departments continue to make effort to create new partnerships with universities around the world.

CUHK-Shenzhen participated in the signing ceremony for the jointly initiated "Shenzhen International Friendship City University League" (SIFCUL), which was initiated by South University of Science and Technology of China, on 9 July 2014 in order to improve internationalisation of the campus and international partnership in academic research with universities in cities belonging to friendship cities of Shenzhen.[22]

On 30 April 2015, the fifth annual Presidents Forum of Worldwide Universities Network convened at the campus.[23]

CUHK-Shenzhen's enrollment in mainland China follows mainland’s regulations and requirements. Currently, CUHK-Shenzhen enrolls students from 25 provinces based on students’ performance in the national college entrance exam, which is also known as Gaokao. A dual-track admission, which involves a new assessment mode named “trinity system” as well as the traditional one, is implemented in six provincial regions (Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Shandong, Fujian and Jiangsu). In the “trinity system”, in addition to the national college entrance exam, candidates' performance in tests of high school evaluation and exams by the university are also considered.

The admission of international students also follows strict academic standards. International students currently studying at the University mainly come from the United States, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, Italy, South Korea, Russia, Ukraine, New Zealand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the Dominican Republic. As the academic reputation of CUHK-Shenzhen increases, the number of international students will continue to grow.

The campus of 1 million square meters has been completed.

Phase I campus comprises the upper, middle and lower campus. The campus design of CUHK-Shenzhen implements the spatial concept of "mountains, trees and courtyard". The campus preserves the woodland mountain ecosystem and establishes a green axis through the core of the university grounds. The buildings offer a free academic environment for staff and students and are designed to fit into nature, with such features as the semi-transparent wood barriers along Longxiang Road.The campus is still under construction with currently 100 acres of area available. The second phase will be completed at around 2022, after which the total area of the campus will be around 1,500 acres.[24]