The head of Hong Kong’s oldest university has vowed to inject more resources into humanities programmes, praising them as a source of creativity and imagination, even as some institutions outside the city cut courses amid the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).
Professor Xiang Zhang, president of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), made the pledge on Wednesday as the head of the institution’s medical faculty revealed the school would ditch its target for 75 per cent of its intake to be candidates sitting the local university entrance exams, to ensure it could recruit the best students.
Speaking at a spring reception with the media, Zhang said that mainland China’s Fudan University and some institutions in Australia were among those cutting resources for humanities programmes as they were not considered to be producing any direct economic value, with the focus instead shifting to science and engineering.
He pledged that HKU would do the opposite and increase its investment in the humanities.
Zhang said the university would set up a dedicated “Humanities Fund” to encourage excellence, while also helping to address complex challenges facing the world.
“The humanities are extremely important. So we are probably in the minority. We might be the only university that stands out to say humanities are important,” he said.
