Mathieson send 比全校的email
Important message from Professor Peter Mathieson, President and Vice-Chancellor
Dear colleagues, students, alumni and friends,
I am writing to inform you that I have resigned as your President and Vice-Chancellor, and I plan to leave HKU in January 2018. Thereafter I will take up a new appointment as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh.
During my one year's notice period, it will be very important that there is no loss of momentum at HKU: the Senior Management Team is unanimously and heavily engaged in a process of reform towards achieving our Vision of Innovation, Interdisciplinarity and Internationalisation converging on Impact, and being Asia's Global University. I will remain dedicated to the task and working hard with all of you to achieve our goals. The departure of one person must not be allowed to derail the progress being made at this great and venerable University.
It has been a distinct privilege to lead HKU for almost three years and I am sorry and somewhat surprised to be leaving before the completion of my term. The HKU students, staff, alumni and friends are wonderful and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with you all: I regret that it was not for longer. There are very few universities in the world that could have tempted me to leave HKU but Edinburgh is one of them. I have many personal reasons for returning to the UK and I have decided after extensive discussions with my family to take this opportunity now.
I will leave HKU with a sense of great progress having been made during my time here. We have articulated a strategic vision for the next ten years of the University and put in place many of the reforms and modernisations that will be required to deliver that vision.
We have already greatly improved our international visibility, including new strategic partnerships with top universities in the US, UK and Australia and our pioneering dual degree agreements with the likes of University College London, Sciences Po and University of Southern California.
We have put together a superb Senior Management Team (SMT), reformed the reporting structures for senior academic staff including establishing a clear mandate from the SMT for the Faculty Deans, reformed academic career structures, staff review and development procedures and streamlined and made more transparent and objective our hiring, promotion and tenure decisions.
Ambitious proposals are well-advanced to reform the budgeting of the University and ensure that our resources can be optimally deployed. We have established a recovery plan for Centennial College. We have radically improved the governance situation regarding the HKU-Shenzhen Hospital, including addressing the financial risks associated with the project and negotiating a detailed repayment schedule.
We have taken bold moves to address the University’s chronic shortage of accommodation for staff and students including purchasing and renting new sites; resolving a very longstanding issue around the lease for High West which will allow us to develop the site; collaborating with St John’s College on an exciting development plan; subdividing unduly large apartments and taking back from the private market numerous units for staff usage.
We have responded to the patchy results in Research Assessment Exercise 2014 by focusing attention on areas of concern, made strategic new hires, rewarded excellence and planned proactively for the next research assessment.