Chinese researchers in US eyeing medical teaching jobs at University of Hong Kong, school dean says
- HKU medical school dean Professor Wallace Lau says US recruitment drive has attracted keen interest among researchers looking to return to China
- City’s top medical school is battling manpower crunch after six years of net outflow among teaching staff and rising student numbers, he explains
Hong Kong’s oldest medical school has attracted keen interest from young United States-trained Chinese researchers, potentially helping to stem a net outflow of teaching staff, according to the institution’s dean.
The school dean said he had been “quite successful” in generating interest among many young researchers during recent talks in Orlando, Florida, and would extend the recruitment drive to Australia next month and the United Kingdom in June.
“They are keen to know what Hong Kong can offer in terms of development and interaction opportunities with the mainland,” he said.
Lau said the city’s most prestigious medical school was contending with a long-standing manpower crunch despite an influx in the number of students.
“In the last six years, there was no expansion in our manpower and in fact, we’ve lost a few people. Meanwhile, the number of our undergraduates has increased by about 30 per cent, and that of postgraduates rose by over 40 per cent,” he said.
Lau said the school several years ago had aimed to create 140 additional teaching positions before 2027, but recruitment efforts had stalled during the coronavirus pandemic, while some colleagues had also departed the city.
The full reopening of Hong Kong’s borders had allowed the school to resume efforts to entice overseas talent, with in-person interactions such as the Florida trip being key to promoting the university, he said.
Hong Kong welcomes more Guangdong healthcare workers under exchange programme
“We know we’re doing a good job, but I realise we really need to go out and tell people how good we are,” he said. “We can’t always just see people on screens.”
The bay area refers to Beijing’s initiative to integrate Hong Kong, Macau and nine southern Chinese cities into an economic powerhouse.
The school earlier announced it would spend HK$1 billion (US$127 million) to build a complex next year that would include laboratories dedicated to stem cell research and help prevent overcrowding at its current research and teaching facilities.
Hospital Authority chief sells Hong Kong to UK-based medical students, doctors
Lau on Saturday also backed plans to extend the time local medical school graduates worked in the public healthcare sector, saying the large variety of patients would help them to gain work experience quickly.
The move would also be a win for public hospital patients as it would increase the number of attending doctors, he said. But Lau added that working conditions needed improvement.
“It is important that we don’t just tell students that ‘it’s OK to be exhausted’, as our public healthcare system has to consider how to reduce their workload and pressure,” he said.
