Library, Digital Education & Campus Services

1. Lee Shau Kee Library

1.1 Naming and Donation

The main library building at HKUST is named after Dr Lee Shau Kee, a titan of Hong Kong’s property sector; it was formally designated the “Lee Shau Kee Library” in 2006. Dr Lee’s philanthropic support for the University stretches over many years. Among his contributions, a HK$400 million donation announced on 20 March 2007 funded the construction of the Lee Shau Kee Business Building and supported further campus development, earning him the title of Inaugural Patron of the Institute for Advanced Study. Founded alongside the University in 1991, the library was one of the first academic libraries in Hong Kong to deploy a networked bilingual (Chinese–English) catalogue system.

1.2 Collection Size

Resource type	Approximate count
Print books	623,155 volumes
E-books	1,882,350 volumes
Journals (print + electronic)	144,142 titles
Databases	372
Media materials	22,185 items
Streaming media	233,977 items

The library was expanded in 2011–2012, adding roughly 1,800 m² of new space and refurbishing an equivalent area. The extension created a Learning Commons with over 600 seats, divided into five functional zones — group discussion areas, open study spaces, a refreshment area, an instructional zone, and a creative media zone — all kept open 24 hours during the autumn and spring semesters.

1.3 University Archives & Special Collections

Western Maps of China Project

The library holds East Asia’s largest special collection of Western-printed historical maps of China, encompassing over 300 maps, pictures and atlases of China printed in Europe between the 16th and 19th centuries, the majority donated by Dr Ko Pui-shuen (高培生). The project also maintains an online catalogue (mappasinica.hkust.edu.hk) offering high-resolution digital images of 127 maps. Related scholarly work has been compiled into the First Bibliographical Catalogue of Chinese Maps (covering the period 1584–1735).

Hong Kong Chiu Chow Chamber of Commerce Ko Pui Shuen Gallery

On 29 November 2013, the Ko Pui Shuen Gallery officially opened on the library’s ground floor, funded by a HK$3 million donation from Dr Ko Pui-shuen. The gallery displays antique Chinese maps and rare volumes on the history of science, including an original map by Abraham Ortelius and original editions of works by Galileo and Newton.

Other Special Collections

East Asian Antique Maps: Chinese court maps and historical atlases of East Asia.
Rare Books on the History of European Science: Over 500 landmark works spanning 500 years of European scientific development.
Pre-1949 Western Works on China: 16th- to 20th-century writings by missionaries, explorers and diplomats.
The Paul T.K. Lin Papers: Personal papers of the political scientist Paul Lin Ta-kuang (林達光, 1920–2004).

All of the above special collections are accessible online via the Rare & Special e-Zone (lbezone.hkust.edu.hk); digitisation work began in April 2013.

2. Digital Education and MOOCs

2.1 MOOC Platforms

HKUST was the first university in Asia to partner with Coursera to deliver Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), launching its inaugural batch of courses in 2013. Since then the University has built a presence on both Coursera and edX (under the brand HKUSTx), and in recent years over 4 million learners worldwide have enrolled in roughly 80 free courses.

Representative courses include:

FinTech: Finance Industry Transformation and Regulation
Business English for Non-Native Speakers
The Science of Gastronomy (over 83,000 enrolments in its first run)
A MicroMasters programme in Big Data Technology

The MOOC strategy is coordinated by the Center for Education Innovation (CEI), which also supports blended learning, course design and innovative teaching practices.

2.2 Blockchain Credential Verification

In June 2020, HKUST became the first university in Hong Kong to issue blockchain-anchored digital degree certificates, using the Blockcerts open standard to generate tamper-proof electronic credentials through cryptographic signing. In November 2020 the system was extended to cover electronic transcripts (e-transcripts).

Third parties can verify a certificate’s authenticity at registry.ust.hk/verify/info without going through any intermediary. Any tampering invalidates the certificate’s hash, making forgery instantly detectable.

3. Smart-Campus IT Infrastructure

3.1 Network Infrastructure

The main Clear Water Bay campus is cabled with a 10-Gigabit Ethernet backbone linking over 300 aggregation switches across more than 170 telecommunications rooms, and has completed a full upgrade to Wi-Fi 6 (IEEE 802.11ax) — rolled out in six phases, with the first completed in 2020. The campus now has over 6,000 wireless access points, placing it among the top universities in Hong Kong for both coverage and capacity.

3.2 Sustainable Smart Campus (SSC) Living Lab

HKUST frames its main campus as a “Sustainable Smart Campus (SSC) Living Lab”, using the real campus environment to validate sustainable technologies. Deployments include:

A LoRaWAN low-power wide-area IoT network (923 MHz, Hong Kong’s allocated band)
3D campus digital modelling
The Smart Campus Air-quality Network (SCAN)
Passive radiative cooling paint
An integrated aquaponics system
Smart nap pods
Real-time dashboards for renewable energy and resource saving (roughly 784 kWh of renewable energy generated daily, the equivalent of some 502 plastic bottles saved each day, and about 88 tonnes of waste recycled every month)

4. Research Funding and Hong Kong’s Higher-Education Landscape

4.1 UGC Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2020)

The University Grants Committee (UGC) Research Assessment Exercise 2020 rated over 81% of HKUST’s research outputs as “internationally excellent” or “world leading”, with roughly 90% of its impact case studies judged to deliver “considerable or outstanding” impact. HKUST topped all Hong Kong institutions in five subject areas:

Physical Sciences
Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Built Environment
Business & Economics
Social Sciences

4.2 Position within Hong Kong’s Tertiary Sector

Hong Kong has eight UGC-funded universities: The University of Hong Kong (1911), The Chinese University of Hong Kong (1963), The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (1991), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (predecessor 1972), City University of Hong Kong (predecessor 1984), Hong Kong Baptist University (predecessor 1956), Lingnan University, and The Education University of Hong Kong. Among them, HKUST is the only one founded expressly as a research university, modelled from the outset on American research-university designs.

5. Language Policy

HKUST’s academic language policy, established at its founding, mandates English-medium instruction (EMI). All courses — except those granted individual approval by the Senate — are taught and assessed in English. The policy was most recently revised and formally reaffirmed in August 2021. HKUST is one of the eight UGC-funded universities in Hong Kong that rigorously enforce full English-medium teaching.

6. Campus Dining Culture

The Clear Water Bay campus offers a diverse range of dining facilities managed by the Campus Services Office (CSO), including:

LG7 Student Canteen: The largest outlet, serving a broad mix of Chinese and Western dishes.
LG5 Food Court: Houses McDonald’s and Japanese, Thai, Chinese and Italian counters.
China Garden: A full-service Chinese restaurant that also handles banquets.
UniQue: International and Western cuisine with sea views over Tolo Harbour.
UniBistro: Mediterranean dishes and a salad bar.
Coffee brands: Starbucks, McCafé, Passione (French patisserie), Pacific Coffee.
Quick-bite counters: Subway, Ebeneezer’s (halal kebabs), TamJai SamGor (TamJai rice noodles), UniVeggie (vegetarian).

Additionally, the campus houses the Tsang Shiu Tim Art Hall (曾肇添藝術廳) (named in 2010 with a HK$20 million donation), a multi-purpose performing-arts and exhibition venue spanning approximately 450 m². The Center for the Arts (CFA), located on LG3, runs exhibitions, concerts, film screenings and the annual HKUST Arts Festival (held since 2010) throughout the year.

Sources

Ko Pui Shuen Special Collections Donation — official
Ko Pui Shuen Gallery Opening — official
Western Maps Project — official
Blockchain e-Certification Platform — official
CEI MOOC Page — official
MOOC Boundless Learning — official
Smart Campus Infrastructure — official
SSC Living Lab — official
RAE 2020 Results — official
Lee Shau Kee HK$400M Donation — official
Tsang Shiu Tim Art Hall Naming — official
HKUST Library Wikipedia — secondary
EMI Policy — official
CSO Restaurant Map — official