Opinion | Hong Kong must build an education innovation hub fit for Gen Alpha

With its impressive universities and financial resources, the city has the makings of a global hub. The challenge is to haul it into the AI age

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Published: 5:30am, 25 Oct 2025Updated: 8:31am, 25 Oct 2025

All eight publicly subsidised universities in Hong Kong have secured a place among the world’s top 350 institutions, according to the 2026 World University Rankings released by Times Higher Education earlier this month. This is the first time all Hong Kong’s public universities have made the prestigious list.

Even more exciting is the fact that six of them have landed in the world’s top 200. With five in the top 100, Hong Kong boasts the highest concentration of top 100 universities of any city in the world.

This milestone for Hong Kong’s higher education system will boost the city’s goal of building an international education hub, as envisioned in Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s policy address last month.

The time is certainly right. The latest rankings reveal an interesting trend: more Asian universities are performing better than their US and European peers.

As a Times Higher Education spokesman noted: “The US and much of western Europe have suffered significant lost ground in the world rankings, while East Asian nations, led by China, continue to thrive and surge up the table.” He attributed this trend to dwindling research funding and a decrease in global talent on campuses in the West.

The stage is now set for Asian universities to do even better in future rankings. In the United States, the Trump administration is withholding funding for public schools and university research, and it has raised the bar for international students wishing to study in America. Meanwhile, European universities in countries such as France and Germany are grappling with financial challenges. As we know, a university’s faculty, research and students are vital components in assessing its academic standing.

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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}With its impressive universities and financial resources, the city has the makings of a global hub. The challenge is to haul it into the AI age

With its impressive universities and financial resources, the city has the makings of a global hub. The challenge is to haul it into the AI age