Task force set up to review CityU's veterinary school plan
Expert panel to advise on whether to start city's first such facility amid divided opinion
A task force will be formed to review City University's proposal to set up the city's first veterinary school, the University Grants Committee has said.
The panel, which will comprise up to seven local and international veterinary experts, will submit a report on the proposal within the year, committee chairman Edward Cheng Wai-sun said yesterday.
"[The task force] will review the academic, community needs, students' prospects and sustainability of the proposed course," said Cheng.
The committee had in 2011 rejected the Kowloon Tong university's plan to set up Hong Kong's first veterinary school, citing academic and financial concerns.
But the university has since made extensive amendments to its original proposal, Cheng said, and it submitted the revised plan to the committee last month.
CityU's life science programmes director, Dr Howard Wong Kai-hay, welcomed the move to set up the task force.
Under the new proposal, Wong said, the veterinary course will be associated with Cornell College in the US, and a local training farm, animal hospital and laboratory will be built.