Eighty Years of Progress and Innovation of PolyU

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“Eighty years is both a long and a short time span.  It is about the lifetime of a person, and yet as an institution, PolyU's 80-year history – 23 years of which as a university – earns us a label of being a 'young university'", that was how PolyU Council Chairman Mr Chan Tze-ching put it at the University’s 80th Anniversary Celebration Dinner.

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has deep connections to Hong Kong, and the institution has been moving in tandem with the city’s progress since 1937.

To mark its 80th anniversary, PolyU organised a series of celebratory events which brought together international thought-leaders and prominent figures from different sectors to share their insights and visions for the future. These events reunited PolyU alumni from around the world, cultivated entrepreneurship, social responsibility and cultural exchange among students, as well as engaged the community with the University’s outstanding research achievements and innovations.

The celebration officially kicked off last November with a grand opening which gathered 800 distinguished guests who joyfully reviewed PolyU’s remarkable accomplishments at home and abroad over the past 80 years, and enjoyed the premiere of PolyU’s 80th anniversary theme song “Shape the Future”, an upbeat song composed and written by PolyU alumni Chan Kin-on@C AllStar, Oscar and Siu-tung. Loved by the whole PolyU community, the song encouraged youngsters to find new and exciting ways to improve the world for future generations.

Throughout the year, PolyU organised a vibrant mix of international conferences and lecture series. The “Times Higher Education Innovation and Impact Summit”, held from May 31 to June 2, 2017, was a highlight. More than 200 delegates from 34 countries delivered keynote speeches and took part in thought-provoking panel discussions where they shared their ideas about how universities could help to address overarching global challenges.