Calendar 2015–16

The University 17 Part 1 Liaison with the World of Learning The University has since its inception in 1963 striven to cross-fertilize Chinese and Western academic and cultural traditions. To this end, the University has over the years established and maintained partnerships with a large number of institutions around the world, including universities, research institutes, centres of learning, governmental agencies and regional and international associations of higher learning. The University is a member of a number of associations and networks which serves as a platform for forming partnerships, exchanging ideas and knowledge for teaching and research, and promoting cultural exchange. These include the Worldwide Universities Network, the Asia-Pacific Association for International Education, the Association of University Presidents of China, and the Association of Commonwealth Universities. To ensure the University’s academic priorities are supported through partnerships and programmes with institutions outside Hong Kong, the Committee on Academic Links was established in 1991 to formulate policy guidelines for academic links development. Academic linkages and programmes at the University are managed by two offices: the Office of Academic Links and the Office of Academic Links (China). The former is responsible for the coordination of student exchange programmes and for the University’s academic linkages on the international front while the latter is responsible for academic linkages on the mainland and in Taiwan. n n Student Exchanges The University’s first student exchange programme was launched in 1965 with the University of California system. Since then student exchange programmes have been established with over 250 institutions. Besides the University of California system, exchange partners include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto in Canada, University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, Kyoto University in Japan, the Australian National University and the University of Sydney in Australia, ETH Zurich in Switzerland, and Tsinghua University and Peking University in China. There are also exchange agreements with universities in Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand and Turkey. During the academic year 2014–15 over 1,000 CUHK students participated in student exchange programmes for one term, one academic year or during the summer. In addition to this, more than 4,000 students undertook short-term study, research or internship opportunities outside Hong Kong.