State of the Faculty Address 2020

10 HKUMed did rather well on admissions, again. All 3 of the local DSE top scorers with 7 subjects of 5** grades who chose a medical programme are now members of the Class of 2026. They have been joined by 7 IB perfect scorers and 5 GCE A-level 5A* achievers. Of note, we have over-admitted by about 10% this year due to the cancellation of IB and GCEAL examinations globally. The consequent controversies over “inferred” or “synthetic” vs. “predicted” grades for both have compelled the authorities to regrade many candidates’ submissions, leading to upward revision in many cases. Thus, in order to honour our non- JUPAS conditional offers that had been made earlier, we ended up with a slight unanticipated surplus. Our BPharm, BBiomedSc and BASc (Global Health and Development) programmes continue to be the most desired and selective in their respective fields amongst local programmes. We welcomed all incoming freshmen in HKUMed’s first ever online orientation and white coat ceremony, to which very good feedback has been received from the student community. Congregation was also moved online, with all of the University’s 10 faculties celebrating in a joint ceremony that formally conferred degrees on all HKU graduands, including 1,200 from HKUMed. Of course, such an arrangement cannot replicate the elated feeling of walking across the stage with justified pride to receive one’s diploma, so we plan to organise an appropriate event to celebrate your graduation when the situation allows.