Face Off: Should Hong Kong build an innovation-driven university town?
- Each week, two readers debate a hot topic in a showdown that does not necessarily reflect their personal viewpoints
- This week, students debate whether the government should allocate money and land for a large new area dedicated to higher education
Should Hong Kong build an innovation-driven university town? Photo: ShutterstockIf you are interested in joining future Face Off debates, fill out this form to submit your application.
For: Hong Kong should harness intellectual capital
Charis Chan, 14, Malvern College Hong Kong
Hong Kong is home to prestigious universities with a strong focus on research and development. To fully harness our intellectual capital, I believe that Hong Kong should build an innovation-driven university town.
To start off, universities may run collaborative, community-driven programmes that focus on specific themes and share their academic cultures with one another. Collaboration and communication across a range of universities allow students to be involved in helping the community while having peer support and looking to each other as role models. On these platforms, students can showcase their works, connecting diverse talents and skills and creating a positive impact as innovative ideas are spread. Collaborative learning encourages the exchange of ideas, inspiring fresh projects started and run by students, for students.
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An innovative university town offers the perfect setting for entrepreneurship and the expansion of start-up businesses. Because of the creation of free space with mentoring and funding, an innovation-driven university town would inspire students to become aspiring entrepreneurs and transform their innovative ideas to benefit the community.
According to research by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, “The growing trend of entrepreneurship in Hong Kong in recent years has led to a rapid increase in the number of start‑ups. Between 2015 and 2020, the number of start‑ups more than doubled, from 1,558 to 3,360.” By creating an innovation-driven university town, Hong Kong can keep up this positive trend to let inspiring projects solve local issues and make Hong Kong a better place for everyone.
An innovation-driven university town would retain local talent while attracting global talent. The presence of renowned universities would attract international talent to join the city, increasing the region’s variety and intellectual capital. In the meantime, the town would create an atmosphere which fosters creativity, cultural exchange and social interaction. It would offer areas for the arts, culture and leisure, drawing a wide spectrum of people and fostering a welcoming and pleasant city.
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Against: City should upgrade existing facilities
Audrey Yeung, 15, Renaissance College
Hong Kong, located in the heart of Asia, has made great strides in terms of innovation despite its small size. However, Hong Kong shouldn’t build an innovation-driven university town.
Hong Kong is currently going through a housing crisis, with countless people living in subdivided units and cage homes. This is largely due to the lack of public housing as well as skyrocketing housing prices.
Once the university town is built, there will be 500,000 new flats ready for people to move in, right?
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Yes and no. It is true that 500,000 flats will be built, but all that goes to waste if no one can afford it.
Hong Kong is one of the world’s most expensive cities for housing, with one in five citizens living under the poverty line. A university town would mostly be populated by students, and even the average housing price is hardly realistic for them. Bringing in more students to a “higher education hub” means nothing if no one is able to live there because of Hong Kong’s ridiculously high housing costs. Researchers and entrepreneurs who may work in the university town may also struggle with Hong Kong’s high cost of living. Between funding for possible infrastructure projects and school fees, there is hardly anything left for living expenses.
The university town will cover over 60 hectares of land, and there is bound to be a significant amount of money that will go into this project, so instead of spending an immense amount of money and time on building a university town, why not spend just a fraction of that money on upgrading existing facilities? There is no reason why we can’t still be innovative and achieve great things.
The town also aims to expand current institutions, but with the limited space Hong Kong has, how will the government decide which university gets its land request granted and which doesn’t? This only increases competition between existing universities.
Nowadays, everyone wants the “new thing”, so we are willing to spend more on it, but we really need to focus on improving what we already have. This is why Hong Kong should not build an innovation-driven university town. Instead, we should work on upgrading our existing facilities and improving the quality of education without spending so much money.