Governance Structure and Past Presidents (Part I) — The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

This is Part I, covering the governance structure and the administrative relay of five presidents; the lineage of six Council chairmen and where the two threads converge can be found in Governance Structure and Past Presidents (Part II)^※.

# I. Legal Foundation

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology was established and operates under the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Ordinance, which sets out the University's powers, governing bodies and responsibilities^※. The University's principal governing bodies include: the Chancellor, the Council, the Court and the Senate.

The Ordinance is codified as Chapter 1141 of the Laws of Hong Kong. Under the Ordinance, the Council may make "Statutes" for the specific operation of the University, which take effect upon publication in the Government Gazette — a two-tier legislative structure of "the Ordinance setting the framework, the Statutes spelling out the details". Day-to-day governance adjustments are mostly made by amending the Statutes, without touching the Ordinance itself.

The four governing bodies were established at different times: the Senate was formed in January 1991 alongside the opening of the University^※, while the Court was not formally established until May 1994^※, nearly three years after the University opened its doors. This sequence reveals the governance priorities of the founding era: academic approval (the Senate) and executive governance (the Council) had to be in place from day one, while the advisory functions — fundraising and external relations (the Court) — could be institutionally completed somewhat later.

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# II. Principal Governing Bodies

# 1. Chancellor

Under the Ordinance, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong automatically serves as the Chancellor of HKUST, the University's ceremonial head, with the authority to confer degrees and other academic honours in the name of the University^※. The current Chancellor is John Lee Ka-chiu, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

# 2. Council

The Council is the University's supreme governing and executive body, exercising all powers and duties of the University under the Ordinance^※. The Council comprises:

• 27 members in total, chaired by a non-executive chairman who is not a University employee^※
• Members include: non-executive members, the President, academic and administrative representatives, one student representative and one staff representative

The current Council Chairman is Prof. Harry Shum, first appointed in March 2023, with his reappointment announced in January 2026 for a new three-year term beginning 6 March 2026^※. Shum is an internationally renowned computer scientist, formerly Executive Vice-President of Microsoft's AI and Research Group, a Fellow of the IEEE and of the ACM, and an elected member of both the US National Academy of Engineering and the Royal Academy of Engineering. His association with HKUST spans about 25 years: he served as an adjunct professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and was conferred an Honorary Fellowship in 2011 (for his full tenure and its place in the succession of his predecessors, see Part II^※).

# 3. Court

The Court is the University's supreme advisory body, with the principal function of promoting the interests of the University and raising funds^※. The current Court Chairman is Mr. Andrew Liao Cheung-Sing.

# 4. Senate

The Senate, established by the Ordinance, is the University's supreme academic body^※, responsible for core teaching matters such as academic policy, programme approval and degree-awarding standards. Formally constituted in January 1991^※, the Senate was a crucial step in completing the University's governance architecture on the eve of its opening.

According to the Senate membership page^※, it is the largest and most broadly representative of the four governing bodies: ex officio members include the President, the Provost, four Vice-Presidents, the Deans of the eight Schools and the Dean of Graduate Studies, the Registrar and the University Librarian; sixteen elected academic representatives — four each elected by the three founding Schools (Science, Engineering, and Business and Management), one by the School of Humanities and Social Science, and three by the entire teaching body; the President of the Students' Union, one undergraduate and one postgraduate representative; and thirteen co-opted full-time academic staff — over sixty members in total. This three-part composition — ex officio seats as the base, elected representatives for legitimacy, co-opted members to fill specific expertise — ensures the Senate covers every School while remaining far more than a rubber stamp for the administration.

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# III. The Division of Labour among the "Three Bodies" and the Administrative Line

HKUST's governance can be summarised as "three bodies, one line": the Court — Council — Senate as three tiers of deliberative bodies, plus the administrative line led by the President. Each has its own remit, together forming a governance system with clearly delineated powers.

The division of labour among the three bodies. According to the Council page^※ and the governance structure page^※:

This three-tier "advisory — governing — academic" structure is the classic form of British university governance (Court/Council/Senate). The Council holds the real governing power, the Senate governs academic matters, and the Court handles advice and fundraising — mutually counterbalancing yet each with its own focus. Notably, although the Senate is the supreme academic body, the academic statutes it makes still require Council approval^※ — an institutional balance between "academic autonomy" and "corporate governance".

Composition of the Council. According to the Council page^※, the Council has 27 members^※, chaired by a non-executive chairman who is not a University employee; members include non-executive members, the President, academic and administrative representatives, one elected student representative and one staff representative. The requirement that the non-executive chairman must not be a University employee is designed to ensure independent oversight of the administration by the governing tier.

Composition of the Senate. According to public information, the Senate is chaired by the President and includes the Provost, Vice-Presidents, Deans of Schools, heads of departments and academic units, academic staff elected by peers or co-opted by committees, and student representatives. This composition ensures that academic decisions reflect the voices of management, frontline faculty and students alike.

The administrative line. According to public information, HKUST is led by the President, who serves as both Chief Executive Officer and Chief Academic Officer. Reporting to the President are one Provost, three Vice-Presidents, and the Deans of the four Schools and the Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS; see Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies^※). This administrative line — President → Provost → Vice-Presidents → Deans — runs the University's day-to-day operations.

Note: this section focuses on the institutional structure itself. The specific personnel of the current senior leadership team are handled with care in accordance with this site's editorial guidelines; the wild-history section of this site contains multi-perspective accounts of topics including governance reform and the early departure of a president (see Campus Politics and Reform^※). This section does not pass judgment on such matters, merely recording the institutional framework.

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# IV. Standing Committees under the Council

The Council may be the "supreme governing and executive body", but a full body of 27 cannot attend to everything itself. Day-to-day powers are largely delegated to standing committees, with the full Council retaining final approval. According to the Committees of the Council page^※, twelve standing committees are currently in place:

Of these, the Committee on HKUST(GZ) and the Committee on School of Medicine are the two most recently established^※, corresponding respectively to the University's two most significant expansions of the past decade — the opening of the Guangzhou campus and the planning of a third medical school. They offer a direct window into how the governance structure grows alongside the University's expanding footprint (see next section for details).

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# V. Governance Expansion: From "One University, Two Campuses" to the Medical School

HKUST's governance structure is not static; it has grown continuously with the University's expanding footprint. The two most significant additions of the past decade are the Guangzhou campus and the medical school — both have spawned dedicated Council standing committees and offer case studies of how HKUST's governance responds to cross-regional and cross-disciplinary expansion.

The governance logic of "Unified HKUST, Complementary Campuses." Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) formally opened in September 2022^※, together with the Clear Water Bay campus forming what the University officially calls the "Unified HKUST, Complementary Campuses" framework^※. According to official HKUST explanations, the two campuses are separate legal entities with independent financial systems, but of equal standing, maintaining consistent academic standards, faculty quality and programme quality, and generating synergy through resource sharing and complementary strengths^※. The then-President Wei Shyy said the University's ethos of interdisciplinary education "has found solid ground to thrive under the 'Unified HKUST, Complementary Campuses' framework". At the Council level, this design of "two legal entities, one set of academic standards" finds expression in the dedicated Committee on HKUST(GZ) — which, according to its terms of reference, handles matters related to the governance of HKUST(GZ) on behalf of the Council, as well as matters handled by the HKUST(GZ) Council and the Joint Preparatory Committee^※. It is the institutional interface through which the Clear Water Bay Council oversees the Guangzhou campus without directly intervening in its day-to-day governance.

Medical school: the latest addition to HKUST's governance structure. On 18 November 2025, the Chief Executive-in-Council formally approved HKUST's establishment of Hong Kong's third medical school^※, following an assessment process by the government-appointed "Working Group on New Medical School". Council Chairman Prof. Harry Shum said HKUST is "honoured to be a partner of the Government's forward-looking strategy in driving healthcare innovation and nurturing a robust healthcare talent pipeline"^※. President Prof. Nancy Ip called it "a strong endorsement of the Government's strategic vision"^※, and said HKUST will devote itself to blending rigorous clinical training with technological literacy to nurture a new generation of clinicians. At the governance level, Ip will chair the newly established Steering Committee, comprising University management and senior medical leaders, tasked with providing strategic direction for the school's establishment and development^※. The preparatory administrative office is temporarily headed by Fok Tai-fai, a former Dean of Medicine at CUHK, and HKUST has signed cooperation agreements with more than twenty local, mainland and international medical institutions. This two-tier design — "President chairs the Steering Committee, plus a dedicated Council committee" — closely mirrors the governance interface used for the Guangzhou campus. Whenever a major expansion of the University's footprint is at stake, HKUST's response is consistent: add a dedicated node to the existing "three bodies, one line" skeleton rather than tearing it up and starting afresh.

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# VI. The Presidents: A Relay of Five (1991–Present)

# First President: Chia-Wei Woo (1991–2001) — Building from Nothing, "Creation, not Replication"

Prof. Chia-Wei Woo was born in Shanghai in 1937, grew up in Hong Kong, and earned a PhD in physics from Washington University in St. Louis^※. In 1983, he became President of San Francisco State University, the first Chinese-American to head a major American university. In 1988, he returned to Hong Kong to take up the post of HKUST's founding President, leading the University from nothing to its opening in October 1991, three years ahead of the original 1994 schedule^※ (for the pre-founding history, see Founding History and Naming^※).

His leadership philosophy was "creation, not replication" — he focused on recruiting first-rate international scholars and instilled in HKUST the DNA of a research university. His term ran from 1991 to 2001, a full decade^※ — the longest of any president to date. The Academic Concourse was named after him in 2001 in commemoration.

Chia-Wei Woo passed away on 19 March 2025, at the age of 87^※. Council Chairman Harry Shum said his "philosophy of 'creation, not replication' continues to inspire the HKUST community today" (for a fuller account of his founding life and anecdotes, see Chia-Wei Woo: Founding President of HKUST^※).

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# Second President: Paul Ching-Wu Chu (2001–2009) — A Superconductivity Physicist at the Helm, International Rankings Soaring

Prof. Paul Ching-Wu Chu was born on 2 December 1941 in Changsha, Hunan province, grew up in Taiwan, and earned a PhD in physics from the University of California, San Diego^※. He is a world-leading superconductivity physicist, whose team in 1987 discovered the superconductivity of the yttrium-barium-copper-oxide (YBaCuO) compound above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen (77 K)^※ — a landmark breakthrough in the history of superconductivity research.

Before becoming HKUST President, Chu served as the founding Director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TCSUH) from 1987 to 2001^※. He took office as the second President in November 2001 and served until 2009^※. During his tenure the University's international rankings rose steadily, and the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA programme first claimed the world's No. 1 ranking in 2007.

In successive independent opinion surveys of Hong Kong institutions, Chu was voted "Best University President" seven times between 2002–2004 and 2006–2009, and placed second in 2005^※ — the most consistently well-regarded administrative leader in the University's history. He retired at the end of his term in August 2009 and returned to the University of Houston to focus on research.

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# Third President: Tony F. Chan (2009–2018) — A Mathematician at the Helm, Asian Top-Tier Rankings Cemented

Prof. Tony Fan-Cheong Chan was born in Hong Kong on 20 January 1952, earned bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering from the California Institute of Technology, and a PhD in computer science from Stanford University^※. He is an internationally renowned mathematician whose research focuses on numerical methods and image processing.

He taught at Yale and UCLA, serving as Chair of UCLA's Mathematics Department and Dean of its Physical Sciences Division. From 2006 to 2009 he served as Assistant Director of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate at the US National Science Foundation^※, managing an annual budget of roughly HK$10 billion.

Chan became HKUST's third President in September 2009 and served until August 2018^※. Under his leadership the University's global rankings rose dramatically and its academic reputation climbed to the forefront of Asia; the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA repeatedly retained its world No. 1 ranking. In 2014, he was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering^※, one of the few serving Hong Kong university presidents to receive such an honour; the then Council Chairman Marvin Cheung described him as a "rare scholar-administrator leader". After leaving HKUST, Chan took up the presidency of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), extending his cross-regional higher-education leadership (for a more detailed record of his tenure, see The Tony F. Chan Presidency^※).

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# Fourth President: Wei Shyy (2018–2022) — Internal Promotion, the Guangzhou Opening, an Early Handover

Prof. Wei Shyy was born in Hsinchu, Taiwan in 1955, completed his undergraduate studies at National Tsing Hua University, and earned a doctorate in aerospace engineering in the United States^※. He is an aerospace engineer whose research focuses on fluid mechanics and bio-inspired flapping-wing flight. Shyy joined HKUST as Provost in August 2010, and was promoted to Executive Vice-President and Provost in 2013^※, where he led the reform of undergraduate programmes to the four-year structure (see The Four-Year Curriculum Reform and the Common Core^※).

In September 2018, Shyy became HKUST's fourth President^※ — the first to rise from the University's own administrative line (the Provost's office) to the presidency — with a five-year term originally scheduled to last until 2023. Council Chairman Andrew Liao described him as possessing "a rare combination of an outstanding scholar and a seasoned academic administrator".

Shyy's most important milestone was the formal opening of HKUST(GZ) in September 2022^※, establishing the University's "one university, two campuses" landscape. In November 2021, Shyy announced he would step down early in October 2022, about a year ahead of the end of his contract^※, without publicly explaining the reason for his early departure; the official announcement said Shyy believed, having witnessed the completion of the Guangzhou campus, "that this is an appropriate time to pass the baton". He formally left office on 18 October 2022^※.

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# Fifth President: Nancy Y. Ip (2022–Present) — An HKUST-Trained Neuroscientist and the First Female President

Prof. Nancy Ip Yuk-yu is a world-leading neuroscientist who joined HKUST in 1993, serving successively as Head of the Department of Biochemistry (2000), Dean of Science (2011) and Vice-President for Research and Development (2016)^※. She earned her PhD in pharmacology from Harvard University in 1983.

In May 2022, the HKUST Council unanimously approved the appointment of Prof. Nancy Ip as the fifth President, and she formally took office on 19 October 2022^※ — the first female president in the University's history, and the first to have been nurtured entirely through the University's own research ranks and promoted to its highest administrative post. Having spent over three decades at HKUST, she has a deep understanding of its academic culture and research directions.

Ip's research focuses on the neurobiological mechanisms and therapeutic targets of Alzheimer's disease, and she commands high international standing in the medical field. She is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, and in 2004 received the UNESCO-L'Oréal "For Women in Science" Award — the first laureate from China in the life sciences. Upon taking office, she said: "I am humbled by the trust placed in me, and will work tirelessly to build upon our foundation of excellence as we embark on HKUST 2.0." During her tenure, the University has advanced the medical school project, attracted leading international talent, and strengthened major initiatives in AI and deep-tech research (for the full story of the first female president, see Nancy Ip: the First Female President^※; for the governance mechanism of the medical school, see "V. Governance Expansion" above).

# Table of Presidents

For the lineage of the six Council chairmen and where the two threads converge, see Governance Structure and Past Presidents (Part II)^※.

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# Related Reading

• Governance Structure and Past Presidents (Part II)^※ — the succession lineage of six Council chairmen
• Presidential Succession and Council Chairmen at a Glance^※ — an archive of announcement/effective dates organised around "handover nodes"
• Founding History and Naming^※ — the embryonic governance of the 1988–1991 preparatory period
• HKUST Chronicle^※ — year-by-year milestones
• Chia-Wei Woo: Founding President of HKUST^※, The Tony F. Chan Presidency^※, Nancy Ip: the First Female President^※ — individual biographies of three presidents

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