Hong Kong’s largest vocational training provider seeks to turn institute into university of applied sciences
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Hong Kong’s largest vocational and professional education and training provider has said one of its institutes will apply to become a university of applied sciences (UAS) in 2026 at the earliest.
The Technological and Higher Education Institute under the Vocational Training Council is among four institutions to have made known their intention of becoming a UAS since the government unveiled a plan for such set-ups last year. Hong Kong Metropolitan University officially obtained the status last month.
Council executive director Donald Tong Chi-keung said the institute, which was founded in 2012, was now applying for the programme area accreditation (PAA) status in three areas, one of the criteria needed before it could apply to become a private university and then a UAS.
If the institution obtains PAA status in the three areas – sports and recreation, architecture and environment, and computer science and information technology – it can launch relevant degree programmes without the need to seek external approval.
“Before the Hong Kong government announced the idea of universities of applied sciences, we were already working towards the goal of becoming one,” he said. “The year of 2026 is the earliest for us to apply. We are not here to do nothing, instead we are now preparing for the accreditation. We need to respect the mechanism.”
The institute has about 2,200 full-time students and offers more than 20 professional applied science degree programmes.