As Hong Kong continues to strengthen its role as an international education hub — supported by regional synergy, upgraded infrastructure, and its unique position bridging East and West — local universities still face the challenge of navigating a more complex and competitive global landscape, speakers told a talent forum on Wednesday.

Hong Kong brings a multifaceted set of advantages to its ambition of becoming an education hub, said Simon Marginson, an emeritus professor of higher education at the University of Oxford. He spoke at a panel discussion on the future development of education, part of Hong Kong’s Global Talent Summit Week.

Marginson said that the city’s deeply rooted culture of self-cultivation continues to foster academic excellence, now further enhanced by upgraded infrastructure that offers greater capacity for education and large-scale events.

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In addition, robust national support, along with the growing synergy among cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, is “virtually making Hong Kong sit next to a vast talent pool”, he said.

Marginson, however, also outlined the city’s vulnerabilities: First, its bid for hub status is still new and underfocused compared to rivals like Sin-gapore; second, geopolitical strains could cool some overseas interest; and third, fierce competition is emanating from other Chinese metropolitan centers — Shanghai, Beijing and fellow Greater Bay Area cities.

The panelists agreed that higher education’s future will be characterized by the pursuit of internationalization, global engagement, the adoption of new technologies, and the cultivation of “creative”, “critical” and “cross-disciplinary” talent.

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Gong Qihuang, president of Peking University, said that China’s higher education sector, after nearly five decades of development bolstered by overseas-trained talent, has matured to a point where it must begin to give back to the world. He added that universities must stay open, and bring in more international students and faculty.

Gong said that Chinese mainland universities lag behind their Hong Kong counterparts in internationalization. For example, of Peking University’s about 50,000 students, only 3,000 — or 6 percent — are from overseas, while just over 100 of its 3,000 faculty members are foreign nationals.

Nancy Ip Yuk-yu, president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, also highlighted the importance of international exchanges, saying that half of all HKUST students have spent time outside the city through exchange programs.

Ip added that future higher education must deepen collaboration with industry partners at home and abroad, which she saw as vital to ensuring graduate employability. HKUST now partners with more than 30 companies to form joint labs, among them the Chinese tech giant Huawei, she said.

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John Quelch, executive vice-chancellor of Duke Kunshan University (DKU) — a Sino-American undertaking between Duke University and Wuhan University — said that any successful joint venture ultimately rests on “strategic alignment, communication, and trust” among partners.

“The values and principles that govern academia are universal principles, in terms of evidence-based, scientific research, and human development through teaching excellence,” he said. “It’s not so difficult to find common ground.”

Amid the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, all panelists said that education’s fundamental mission remains unchanged: to create knowledge, nurture critical-thinking talent, conduct research, and facilitate knowledge transfer.

They added that the role of teachers and universities remains both “indispensable” and “impossible to replace”.

Gong said that the role of teachers is evolving with technological progress, yet their importance may actually be growing.

With machines now part of the learning process, educators must prioritize imparting innovative thinking and critical analysis — guarding against the tendency for students to “simple-mindedly follow the machine’s lead”, he added.

Contact the writer at wanqing@chinadailyhk.com