Exclusive | Hong Kong’s Baptist University exploring plans to create school combining Western and traditional Chinese medicine; campus to move to Northern Metropolis

Baptist University president Alexander Wai says it will move campus to academic town in Northern Metropolis after governing body agrees ‘in principle’ to plan

School combining Western and traditional Chinese medicine envisioned, with Wai hoping to ‘standardise’ practices to make it ‘more evidence-based’

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A view of part of the future site of the Northern Metropolis along the border between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. A number of universities have unveiled plans to set up facilities in the area. Photo: May Tse

Published: 9:00am, 12 Mar 2024Updated: 9:01am, 12 Mar 2024

Baptist University is exploring a plan to set up Hong Kong’s first school combining Western and traditional Chinese medicine in a town near the border with mainland China, after its governing body approved a proposal to relocate its campus.

In an exclusive interview with the Post, Baptist University president Alexander Wai Ping-kong revealed that the governing council had recently “agreed in principle” to press ahead with a plan to move its entire campus to a 60-hectare (148 acres) academic town to be built in the Northern Metropolis.

“Hong Kong has the best specialists of both worlds [in Chinese and Western medicine],” said Wai, who is also a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the country’s top political advisory body.

“There are enough people who believe that this is the right direction to go, although it will take a long time.”

Baptist University president Alexander Wai in Beijing. He says the institution is looking at devising a curriculum of appropriate length. Photo: Handout

In recent months, a number of local universities have expressed interest in establishing a footprint in the Northern Metropolis, a development project that aims to create an international innovation and technology hub spanning 30,000 hectares near the border with the mainland. The site is also expected to provide housing for 2.5 million people in 500,000 flats.