The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) officially opened on Sept 1 with more than 500 postgraduate students beginning a new chapter of campus life in Nansha district.

Different from traditional universities, HKUST(Guangzhou) has no faculty. Instead, it adopts a hub structure with each hub comprising several thrust areas.

HKUST(Guangzhou) said that the core of the academic framework is an enquiry-based cross-disciplinary active learning model. It blends enquiry-based and problem-focused experiential learning, aiming to assist cross-disciplinary education, research and knowledge transfer.

Currently, the university has four hubs with 15 thrust areas covering natural science, humanities and many other academic fields for candidates of master's and PhD degrees.

The function hub provides thrust areas of advanced materials; Earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences; microelectronics; sustainable energy and environment. The information hub, meanwhile, has artificial intelligence, data science and analytics, internet of things, and computational media and arts. The system hub has bioscience and biomedical engineering, intelligent transportation, robotics and autonomous systems and smart manufacturing. Finally, the society hub has urban governance and design; innovation, policy and entrepreneurship; financial technology.

In addition to the hubs, HKUST(Guangzhou) will use flexible learning areas and make regular adjustments to respond to global demands and challenges, it said.

The university plans to recruit undergraduate students from the provinces of Guangdong, Henan, Shandong and Sichuan as well as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao in 2023. Three majors of artificial intelligence, data science and big data technology, and intelligent manufacturing engineering, will be available.

Undergraduate enrollment is expected to be expanded nationwide from 2024, according to the university.