The 2024 Policy Address proposed the establishment of a third medical school, with HKUST, Baptist University, and PolyU all applying to open one. Secretary for Health Stephen Lo Chung-Mau announced that the Executive Council, considering the recommendations of the working group preparing for the new medical school, approved HKUST to establish it. The school is expected to have 50 places in its first year, with the first batch of medical students enrolling in 2028.
Lo indicated that HKUST will self-finance approximately HK$2 billion to build a new medical school complex in Clear Water Bay as a transitional facility before the completion of the Ngau Tam Mei Teaching Hospital in the northern New Territories. When asked whether HKUST’s success in securing a place despite lacking medical specialist courses was due to financial factors, and whether there were disagreements among experts, Lo stated that all three universities’ proposals were meticulously crafted. “Don’t talk about disagreements; we even had our own internal debates,” he emphasized, stressing that finance was only one criterion. He described HKUST as having a clear strategic positioning and strong financial resources, with its investment in infrastructure and operations over the next 25 years being “almost one-to-one” with the government.
 The Hospital Authority (HA) Chairman, Henry Fan, stated today (18/118) that the HA will fully dovetail with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government to support (HKUST) to establish the third medical school. Fan believes that the establishment of the third medical school will strengthen Hong Kong’s healthcare workforce while enhancing medical research and service quality, ultimately benefiting patients.
 “The HA will dovetail with the policy direction of the Health Bureau to fully support the HKUST in developing its medical school. Critical to the public healthcare system, healthcare professional training is one of our four priority areas of work. The HA will provide sufficient support to the clinical training and research at medical schools of all local universities, continuing to advance Hong Kong’s healthcare standards,” Fan said.
The HA will continue to support the two existing medical schools in training medical students, including the provision of sufficient internship positions for all local medical graduates, and the employment of all qualified local medical graduates for specialist training in public hospitals.
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