Guangzhou Campus — The Complete Map of \"Four Hubs, Sixteen Thrust Areas\

The most radical academic innovation of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), or HKUST(GZ), is the complete abolition of the conventional "School–Department" structure, replaced by an interdisciplinary architecture of "Hub" and "Thrust." This framework is outlined in the Guangzhou Campus^※ article; what follows is its complete map—a systematic walk-through of all four Hubs and sixteen Thrust Areas, intended as a structural reference you can consult.

# I. Why "Hub–Thrust" Instead of "School–Department"

A traditional university is built around the "Department" as its basic unit (e.g., Department of Physics, Department of Electronic Engineering), and departments tend to be siloed. HKUST(GZ)'s argument is that the great problems of the real world seldom respect disciplinary boundaries, so it started over:

• Hub — a "nexus among disciplines," an organisational unit that stresses cross-disciplinary connection more than a conventional School does;
• Thrust — a direction within a Hub, representing a "key emerging research area and focus area," replacing the traditional "Department."

The four Hubs each encompass four Thrust Areas, for a total of sixteen Thrust Areas. The architecture is deliberately designed to "transcend disciplinary and organisational boundaries, foster interactions and synergies, and create holistic knowledge beyond individual disciplines" (see the Guangzhou Campus article^※). We walk through them one by one below.

# Scaling Timeline: The Ten-Year Plan from Zero to Ten Thousand

"Hub–Thrust" is not merely an abstract organisational idea; behind it sits a concrete timetable for scaling. According to the university's recruitment materials, HKUST(GZ) aims to recruit 400 regular faculty members covering all research areas by 2025^※. On the student side, the target is 4,000 taught-postgraduate and research-postgraduate students by the 2027/28 academic year, and a total on-campus population of 10,000—undergraduate and postgraduate combined—by the 2032/33 academic year^※. This timetable—"400 faculty, 4,000 postgraduates, 10,000 total students"—turns the "Four Hubs, Sixteen Thrust Areas" from a block diagram into a verifiable ten-year expansion plan, and it serves as a public benchmark against which one can judge whether the Guangzhou campus is on track.

# II. The Function Hub

According to materials on the Function Hub^※, the Function Hub focuses on "functional" physical-science and energy-science research and comprises four Thrust Areas:

The Function Hub's Microelectronics and Advanced Materials Thrust Areas work in tandem with the Clear Water Bay campus's nano-fabrication laboratory (see the Nanosystem Fabrication Facility^※) in a "one body, two wings" arrangement that together serves the Greater Bay Area semiconductor industry.

# III. The Information Hub

According to materials on the Information Hub^※, the Information Hub concentrates on data and intelligence and comprises four Thrust Areas:

The Information Hub's AI and Data Science directions resonate with the Clear Water Bay campus's von Neumann Institute^※ and Department of Computer Science and Engineering^※. The "Computational Media and Arts" (CMA) Thrust, meanwhile, is a distinctly flavoured crossover domain—marrying computational technology with media art, a demonstration of the boundary-crossing fusion that the Hub–Thrust structure encourages.

# IV. The Systems Hub

According to materials on the Systems Hub^※, the Systems Hub concentrates on complex systems and engineering and comprises four Thrust Areas:

The Systems Hub's Robotics & Autonomous Systems and Smart Manufacturing Thrust Areas are closely linked with the Clear Water Bay campus's Cheng Kar-Shun Robotics Institute^※ and with the "Li Zexiang network" of hard-tech entrepreneurship ventures (see Notable Alumni^※). Together, they represent an extension of HKUST's robotics DNA into the industrial heartland of the Greater Bay Area.

# V. The Society Hub

According to materials on the Society Hub^※, the Society Hub concentrates on the intersection of technology and society and comprises four Thrust Areas:

The existence of the Society Hub is especially crucial: it ensures that the Guangzhou campus is not a "pure STEM" university but instead weaves "soft" disciplines—social science, policy, finance, urban governance—together with "hard" technological strengths. Its Innovation, Policy and Entrepreneurship and Urban Governance and Design Thrusts, in particular, trace their lineage to the Clear Water Bay campus's Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies and Division of Public Policy (see the Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies^※).

# VI. Summary: A "De-departmentalised" Academic Map

Placing the four Hubs and sixteen Thrust Areas side by side reveals the overall logic of the Guangzhou campus's academic architecture:

This "de-departmentalised" academic map is the most thoroughgoing embodiment of HKUST's ethos of "Not to duplicate, but to create" at the organisational level—it has not merely invented new courses but restructured the basic organisational unit of the university. Paired with the project-based pedagogy of the Red Bird MPhil Programme^※, the Guangzhou campus constitutes an uncommonly complete paradigm experiment in how a university organises knowledge and cultivates talent.

# From Organisational Chart to Degree Certificate: The Four New Undergraduate Programmes and Six New Postgraduate Programmes Approved in 2025

Is "Hub–Thrust" merely an organisational idea suspended in mid-air? According to a university announcement in March 2025, HKUST(GZ) has recently received approval for four new undergraduate majors and six new master's and doctoral programmes^※—a persuasive checkpoint showing that this architecture has already been concretely translated from an org chart into specific degree programmes that students can apply for and graduate with.

The four newly approved undergraduate majors are: Materials Science and Engineering (new materials for exploration-driven technological innovation), Robotics Engineering (focused on robot development and embodied intelligence), Financial Technology (oriented toward fintech, green finance and digital finance), and Microelectronics Science and Engineering (covering chip design, fabrication and semiconductor materials)^※. Cross-referencing the map above, these four majors correspond exactly to the Function Hub's Advanced Materials and Microelectronics Thrusts, the Systems Hub's Robotics & Autonomous Systems Thrust, and the Society Hub's Financial Technology Thrust—locking in, one by one, a direct mapping between the Hub–Thrust framework and actual admissions-facing programmes.

The six newly approved postgraduate programmes include: Smart Manufacturing (MSc), Carbon Neutrality and Green Finance (MSc), Computational Art (MFA), Carbon Neutrality and Climate Change (MPhil/PhD), and an MBA in Innovation and Entrepreneurship^※—again corresponding to the Systems Hub's Smart Manufacturing Thrust, the Society Hub's Carbon Neutrality and Climate Change Thrust, and the Information Hub's Computational Media and Arts Thrust. The university states that these new programmes and offerings are intended to meet the needs of the national economic and social development of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area^※—directly tying the cross-disciplinary logic of "Hub–Thrust" to the industrial and policy demands of the Greater Bay Area.

Note: The names and abbreviations of Hubs and Thrust Areas described in this article are based on the official pages of HKUST(GZ) at the time of publication and are time-sensitive. Thrust Area configurations may be adjusted as development proceeds; please consult the university's latest official announcements before citing.