Recently, talent cultivation and drainage become a hot topic of discussion following the authoritative Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development's (IMD) latest IMD World Talent Ranking report lowering Hong Kong by six places to fall behind Singapore and other competitors in the region.

　　In a quite long period of time in the past, engineers, medical doctors and accountants had remained the most favourite careers in Hong Kong, because they were highly-paid and respected professionals.　　As such, both students and parents had gone after them in a swarm and relevant faculties in universities gotten all the"outstanding"talents.　　But this trend began to change in the beginning of this century with economics, finance and business management rising to become the most popular subjects.　　So universities now give priority to these subjects in resources allocation to recruit first-class teachers, and outstanding students also prefer business management to medicine or engineering.　　Such a change in the orientation of talent cultivation reflects changes in society and economic structure in reality and also demonstrates the relationship between talent cultivation and development demand.　　In this regard, university presidents and professors with sufficient experience, vision, vigor and determination are badly needed to take the responsibility of leadership and mapping out strategies.

　　At present, as an international financial centre and metropolis, Hong Kong still badly needs talents in finance, business management and the traditional three professions.　　Nevertheless, looking into the future and in face of the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the arrival of the new-era tide of better integration into the overall national development, the problem of shortage of talents in scientific and technological research and innovation has become quite acutely prominent.　　But cultivating and training talents in research and innovation takes time and efforts.　　Hong Kong's educational system always lays stress on cerebration rather than working with hands, on learning by rote and on test scores, and requires students to be"obedient".　　This is infavourable for cultivation of talents in research and innovation.　　Science and engineering subjects in universities, too, always place stress on theories instead of applications.

　　In face of the current problem of shortage of research and innovation talents, therefore, tertiary education must take the lead to make changes, including adjusting the structure of discipline and improving teaching quality, and recruiting externally talents with outstanding achievement and experience in education in research and innovation to take the important posts as university presidents and professors and push forward and take lead in making changes.　　This is the key to the development of university education, and also the key to the improvement of Hong Kong's overall talent quality and the coordination with development demand.

　　 As a matter of fact, Hong Kong universities have quite generous recruitment conditions, and university presidents and professors are also respected in society.　　And in recent years, exchange and cooperation with Mainland universities and even the Chinese Academy of Sciences provides even brighter development prospects for researches.　　Hence, there used to be some second-to-none, extremely excellent research talents in the international academic circle who would readily accept the offers to take the posts of University Presidents in Hong Kong.　　Among them, the most prominent ought to be Chu Ching-wu, former President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Tsui Lap-chee, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong.　　Chu Ching-wu is an expert in high-temperature superconductivity and Tsui Lap-chee an authority in neuroscience.　　Superconductivity technology is essential for telecommunication networks, while neuroscience the foundation of life sciences.　　These two subjects were popular at the time and Chu and Tsui are very outstanding scientists, so Hong Kong should have highly cherished the opportunity of having them working in the city.　　Yet what happened in the end?　　Chu Ching-wu left Hong Kong immediately upon completion of contract to work as a leading figure in the U.S. supreme research institute in communication.　　Before his departure, he bluntly said he felt disappointed with some students' behaviour of assaulting school authorities.　　Vice-Chancellor Tsui Lap-chee had to resign with a heavy heart after being unbelievably accused by radical students of" playing up to Chinese communist bigwigs".　　And Professor Lo Chung Mau, an authority with the University of Hong Kong's Medical Faculty renowned as "father of liver transplantation" in Asia, was shoved down to the ground by protesting students at a Council meeting, and then cursed for"feigning death"…　　The opposition breaks laws and makes trouble in Hong Kong, and radical students violate rules and make trouble in schools.　　As a result, specialists and experts are frightened off.　　So where to find talents?

23 November 2018