Calendar 2021-22

6 Part 1 • General Information Part 1 development of students, it prepares them to be lifelong learners and engaged citizens with a global awareness. The General Education Programme at CUHK is composed of the General Education Foundation, the `Four Areas’ of University General Education, and College General Education. The General Education Foundation and the `Four Areas’ of University General Education are administered by the Office of University General Education, while the College General Education programme is offered by constituent colleges, each with its distinctive mission and tradition. n n Postgraduate Studies Master’s programmes were first offered in 1966–67, and the number of programmes in 2021–22 is 144. Doctoral programmes were first introduced in 1980–81 and the number of programmes is 30 in 2021–22. MPhil–PhD programmes were first introduced in 2004–05, and the number of programmes is 41 in 2021–22. In addition, seven postgraduate diploma programmes and one postgraduate certificate programme are offered. Research and Development CUHK fosters the development of high-quality research over a broad front in all its eight Faculties. It encourages academic staff to conduct research aimed at expanding the frontiers of knowledge, and also to undertake specific consultancy projects of community value and collaborative projects with industry. The University has also established a number of research institutes, providing the necessary financial support and research infrastructure. Riding on its research strengths, CUHK aims to promote interdisciplinary research excellence that can deliver benefits, tackle grand challenges, and fulfil societal needs locally, nationally, and globally. As part of its Strategic Plan 2021–2025, the University has prioritized four major research areas that will address some of the most pressing issues facing humankind. These major research areas are China: tradition and modernity, innovative biomedicine, information and automation technology, and environment and sustainability. In nine Research Grants Council (RGC) ‘Areas of Excellence’ exercises, CUHK has secured significant support from the UGC in the following research projects: Centre for Medical Engineering of Molecular and Biological Probes, Aging, Skeletal Degeneration and Regeneration; Probing the Fundamental Structure of Matter with High Energy Particle Collisions; Centre for Genomic Studies on Plant-Environment Interaction for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security; Centre for Organelle Biogenesis and Function; Institute of Network Coding; the Historical Anthropology of Chinese Society; Centre for Research into Circulating Fetal Nucleic Acids; Chinese Medicine Research and Further Development; Centre for Plant and Agricultural Biotechnology; and Information Technology. Good progress is being made in all these research centres by the dedicated, multidisciplinary teams.