Publishing, Academic Series, and Continuing Education

Editorial note: This entry collects three categories of “serious facts” that don’t fit elsewhere — HKUST’s academic publishing ecology, its institutional academic series, and its continuing / professional education architecture. It complements the treatment of the library, special collections, MOOCs, and IT (see Library and Digital Education). The ranking record of the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA programme, the Business School’s flagship executive-education offering, is covered separately in 03 Rankings; this entry provides only structural references and does not repeat league-table figures.

# 1. The publishing ecology: no traditional university press; knowledge repository and series carry the load

# 1.1 A comparison with HKU and CUHK

Among Hong Kong’s eight UGC-funded institutions, several longer-established universities operate traditional university presses: according to Wikipedia^※, Hong Kong University Press was founded in 1956; according to Wikipedia^※, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press was founded in 1977. Both publish more than fifty academic titles annually.

By contrast, HKUST has no comprehensive university press in the conventional sense. The dissemination of its research output is carried instead through the institutional repository described below and the publication series of several research units, rather than through a book-publishing operation branded as “XX University Press”.

Note: The above is a comparative statement based on verifiable sources. This search has found no official record of a comprehensive academic press bearing the name “HKUST Press”; readers who possess contrary evidence are welcome to supply it with sources. Search outcome: no record of an officially established comprehensive university press at HKUST.

# 1.2 The institutional repository: HKUST SPD

According to the HKUST Institutional Repository official page^※ and the Scholarly Publishing Database guide^※, the HKUST Library operates the HKUST SPD (Scholarly Publications Database) Institutional Repository (IR), managed by library professionals, with the aim of “collecting, preserving, and providing open access to the research output of HKUST researchers.” The repository is a unified gateway to three sub-collections:

• SPD (Scholarly Publications Database): the master index of HKUST academic output, also hosting HKUST Scholar Profiles, which display researchers’ output, impact, and expertise.
• HKUST Theses: electronic access to postgraduate theses and dissertations.
• DataSpace@HKUST: a platform for depositing research datasets.

Open-access deposit policy: according to the sources above, journal articles arising from RGC-funded projects awarded in 2010 or later should be deposited in the institutional repository, with submission recommended within six months of publication.

# 1.3 Rare & Special e-Zone

The HKUST Library also maintains the Rare & Special e-Zone (lbezone.hkust.edu.hk), which provides digitised open access to special collections including antique Western maps and rare books on the history of European science (the collections themselves are detailed in Library and Special Collections). This represents another facet of HKUST’s publishing logic: substituting a digital platform for a print-based university press.

# 2. Institutional academic series (non-journal publications)

Although HKUST lacks a comprehensive university press, its research units each maintain academically influential publication series in their own right:

# 2.1 IEMS Thought Leadership Brief Series

According to the RePEc/IDEAS index page^※, the EconPapers index page^※, and the IEMS official publications page^※, the HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies (IEMS) publishes a Thought Leadership Brief series. The series:

• focuses on economic and policy issues in emerging markets, with an emphasis on China, Asia, and Belt and Road-related topics, spanning fintech, innovation, labour markets, environmental sustainability, and international business;
• is fully indexed in the RePEc / EconPapers economics-literature database (RePEc series code hku:briefs), making it a working-paper series independently verifiable through a third-party index;
• according to the EconPapers index, comprises roughly 70 briefs spanning the period from approximately 2015 to 2022.

Note: The number of briefs and the date range cited above reflect what the third-party index (EconPapers) has ingested; the official IEMS page may contain additional updates. Check iems.ust.hk/tlb for the latest before citing specific issue numbers or counts.

# 2.2 IAS Newsletter

According to the HKUST Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) official page^※, the Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) publishes the IAS Newsletter. As described on that page, the newsletter appears roughly twice a year (spring and autumn), featuring themed cover stories alongside “Research Insights” that present the work of IAS fellows in the sciences, engineering, and the humanities. Recent themes have covered quantum computing, materials science, misinformation, wave physics, and virology. Back issues are available dating to 2015, some archived as PDFs.

Naming note: “Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study” and “IEMS Institute for Emerging Market Studies” are official institutional names recorded as matters of fact (neutral-positive). The capital project for the IAS building was funded by the HKSAR Government and The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust — a publicly recorded naming fact.

# 3. Continuing and professional education architecture

HKUST’s non-degree / in-service professional education is distributed across several units, together forming its “continuing education” landscape:

# 3.1 Academy of Continuing Education (ACE), School of Engineering

According to the ACE official mission page^※ and the School of Engineering (SENG) official page^※, the HKUST Academy of Continuing Education (ACE) is the University’s first professional education centre established in the Greater Bay Area. It falls under the School of Engineering (SENG) and is located in Shenzhen (37/F, Changfu Jinmao Building, Futian, within the Shenzhen–Hong Kong Cooperation Demonstration Zone). Its positioning is as follows:

• Mission: “to provide professional education and training to enhance the regional talent pool,” delivering high-quality learning opportunities with an international outlook.
• Operating model: drawing on the expertise and industry connections of HKUST faculty, it functions as a professional training centre for executive education and the sharing of frontier technology and industry knowledge. It runs short courses, workshops, and seminars, and supports joint initiatives, research, and industry collaboration.
• Course format: professional short courses typically last two to five days, taught by world-class specialists in the field; lectures of one to two hours are also held periodically.

# 3.2 Business School Executive Education

The HKUST Business School runs an executive-education operation aimed at serving managers, whose flagship is the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA programme offered jointly with the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. That programme’s Financial Times global EMBA ranking record — repeatedly ranked first in the world — is detailed in this archive’s 03 Rankings. This entry notes only that it constitutes the most prominent component of HKUST’s continuing / executive education landscape, without repeating league-table figures.

# 3.3 Comparative note regarding other institutions

Note: Some Hong Kong institutions maintain large self-financing “continuing / professional studies” colleges — for example, the affiliated continuing-education arms of certain longer-established universities, which offer associate degree and top-up programmes. HKUST’s continuing-education footprint is comparatively concentrated at the professional / executive level (ACE, Business School Executive Education) rather than in large-scale sub-degree provision. This archive does not enumerate the continuing-education colleges of other institutions here; the statement is a neutral structural observation and implies no qualitative judgment.

# 4. Items checked and not found / not expanded upon