Birmingham in Hong Kong

The University of Birmingham's connection with Hong Kong goes back decades.  

Records suggest that our first student from the city graduated in 1962. Currently, more than 200 students are on campus. They enrich the intellectual, social and cultural experience for all at the University, and in the wider community.

The Hong Kong Foundation has enabled us to strengthen and develop new collaborations with HKU, PolyU and EduHK. We were one of the first British universities to offer an MBA in Hong Kong with PolyU. Working together, researchers at HKU and Birmingham have found that long-term exposure to environmental pollutants in Hong Kong was associated with increased risk of mortality for many types of cancer in the local elderly population.

We are currently working with colleagues at EduHK on a Hong Kong Jockey Club funded project to empower young people in Hong Kong through sports coaching. Funds from the Foundation are enabling us to run a pilot programme to explore how we might take this into Hong Kong Schools. Our aim is to empower PE teachers to encourage more school children to reap the benefits of participating in sport.

Academics are gathering data from the six major rivers of Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta, to model the environmental impact of microplastic pollution and how it can be averted, developing novel cold chain technology for cooling decarbonisation in Hong Kong alongside colleagues at PolyU and building clinical research careers in rehabilitation science and physiotherapy.

With more than 3,000 Birmingham alumni resident, Hong Kong represents our largest concentration of graduates anywhere outside of the UK. You have made a vital contribution to its status as ‘Asia’s world city’, impacting all fields and walks of life, from business, the legal profession, to government and religion. Your achievements, and upholding of Birmingham’s values and vision, have made us proud.

Our current students’ experience is enhanced by your volunteering and our Hong Kong alumni have been more generous with their time than alumni anywhere outside of the UK. 150 of you have volunteered more than 1,500 hours to support current students in the last decade with many participating in the Hong Kong mentoring programme, set up by Jonathan Wong, alumnus and President of the Birmingham University Hong Kong Alumni Association (BUAAHK). This has provided dozens of students with mentoring opportunities.