The Northern Metropolis University Town will be large enough to alter the purpose of a Hong Kong degree. It can become Hong Kong’s answer to a question confronting young people everywhere: What should higher education provide in an age when artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how we learn, work and acquire knowledge? If developed through close cooperation between government, industry, academia, research and investment, the University Town can empower young people to shape their own future.
AI and automation are changing the jobs that young people hope to enter, while geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty make it difficult to know which industries and skills will remain valuable.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government should coordinate education, technology, industry, talent and urban development — the so-called “one town, five elements” model — to facilitate a complete innovation chain. A promising result in a university lab does not automatically become a product, a company, or something society can actually use and benefit from. It needs policy support, somewhere to carry out testing, the capacity to move technology out of the lab, rules clear enough to work under, and funding at the early stage. That is the case for the University Town. The government has organized it around four linked tasks: training talent, doing research, turning results into something usable, and building industry around them. The government has also announced the formation of a high-level committee that will explore technology-transfer funding, accelerators, incubators and capital input to encourage commercialization.
The industry sector should bring real problems into the learning process. San Tin University Town will focus on fields including medicine, life and health technology, AI, robotics and microelectronics, while Hung Shui Kiu will connect applied post-secondary education with smart manufacturing and international talent development. These sectors can become extended classrooms. Companies could provide paid internships, apprenticeships, professional mentors, equipment and practical project briefs. Students might help improve a robotic production system, study the responsible use of medical data or apply AI to logistics and urban management. Such work should carry academic credit and form part of degree programs, rather than remain an optional workshop or seminar undertaken during holidays. Young people would then graduate with a knowledge of AI, and most importantly, with evidence that they can use it responsibly to solve an actual problem.
Most importantly, academia must protect the value of human judgement. Universities are confronted by a dilemma nowadays, as they cannot respond to generative AI simply by banning it, nor can they allow students to substitute generated content for intellectual effort. Hence, they need to strike a balance. Oral defenses, supervised problem-solving, research diaries, multiple drafts and practical projects can reveal how students reach their conclusions. Clear disclosure of AI use should also become a basic expectation. The hardest questions surrounding AI concern a long list that includes computing, law, medicine, ethics, finance, social science and liberal arts. The University Town can support joint courses and cross-sectoral programs among Hong Kong, Chinese mainland and overseas institutions. In this model, the purpose of a university will place stronger emphasis on teaching young people how to question information, verify it and accept responsibility for its use.
Research must give young people the opportunity to acquire knowledge and test solutions. The University Town is designed to integrate talent cultivation, scientific research, transformation of outcomes and industrial development. This strategy creates room for shared laboratories and living testbeds connecting campuses with nearby industries and communities. Undergraduate students should be offered structured research placements, while postgraduate researchers should be able to lead pilot projects and join international teams. Research quality should not be judged by publication volume alone. Reliability, reproducibility, social value and ethical AI use matter just as much.
Investment must encourage promising ideas to leave the laboratory. Young innovators can often identify a problem and develop a prototype, but many of them lack the capital, networks and commercial knowledge needed to move forward with their ideas or innovations. Banks, venture-capital funds, philanthropists and impact investors should therefore be connected with university researchers and student founders from an early stage. Universities can also play a role. The City University of Hong Kong’s HK Tech 300, for example, provides angel funding and wider support to help promising ideas move from campus into the market. The University Town could provide youth seed funds, proof-of-concept grants, accelerators and regular opportunities for students to meet potential investors. Existing initiatives already offer a foundation: The Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities assists teams involving students, graduates and professors, while the RAISe+ Scheme can provide substantial support for transforming university research into practical applications. Investment should nevertheless include patient capital for projects, such as medical, green and socially impactful technologies, that may take time to generate returns. Students also need to learn about intellectual property, compliance, and ethical responsibility. Entrepreneurship in itself is a form of education.
The Global University Presidents and Leaders Summit 2026, to be held in Hong Kong on Oct 27 and 28, offers a timely platform to begin building those pathways. More than 50 universities from over 20 countries and regions will take part, with discussions focusing on the University Town and cooperation among government, industry, academia, research and investment. The summit is more than an exchange among established leaders. By bringing student representatives from all over the world and young people’s voices into the conversation, it can help turn a major development plan into a useful platform for the next generation.
Hong Kong could “future-proof” its graduates via the University Town. What it can do is to put a research-backed, real-world problem in front of a student before their dissertation is due, and fund the ones who can show that the result works. This makes the University Town a vital platform for young people to turn learning, research and ideas into practical contributions to Hong Kong’s future.
The author is a youth ambassador for the Hong Kong Association for External Friendship.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
