page_title: Chinese University of Hong Kong
section_title: Foundation
hierarchical_section_title: Chinese University of Hong Kong / History / Foundation
caption_attribution_description: English: Chinese University of Hong Kong as viewed from New Asia College. Photo by Tsui Sing Yan Eric (rseric)
context_page_description: The Chinese University of Hong Kong is a public research university in Shatin, Hong Kong formally established in 1963 by a charter granted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is the territory's second-oldest university and was founded as a federation of three existing colleges – Chung Chi College, New Asia College and United College – the oldest of which was founded in 1949.
  CUHK is organized into nine constituent colleges and eight academic faculties, and remains the only collegiate university in the territory. The university operates in both English and Chinese, although classes in most colleges are taught in English. Four Nobel laureates are associated with the university, and it is the only tertiary institution in Hong Kong with recipients of the Nobel Prize, Turing Award, Fields Medal and Veblen Prize sitting as faculty in residence.
context_section_description: In June 1959, the Hong Kong government expressed its intent to establish a new university with a medium of instruction of Chinese. The same year, the Post-Secondary Colleges Ordinance was announced to provide government funding and official recognition to New Asia, Chung Chi and United colleges in hopes that the money would "enable them to raise their standards to a level at which they might qualify for university status, probably on a federal basis". The ordinance was enacted on 19 May 1960.
  The Chinese University Preparatory Committee was established in June 1961 to advise the government on possible sites for the new university. The following May, the Fulton Commission was formed to assess the suitability of the three government-funded Post-Secondary Colleges to become constituent colleges of the new university. The commission, headed by Vice-Chancellor John Fulton of the newly established University of Sussex, visited Hong Kong over the summer and produced an interim report recommending the establishment of the federal university comprising the three colleges.
  The Fulton Commission report was tabled in the Legislative Council in June 1963, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong Ordinance was passed in September of that year. The school was officially inaugurated in a ceremony at City Hall on 17 October 1963, officiated by the founding chancellor, Sir Robert Brown Black. The next year, Dr. Li Choh-ming was appointed the first Vice-Chancellor of the university. The university originally comprised the Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Science and Faculty of Social Science. Construction began at the site of the new campus in the Ma Liu Shui area, where Chung Chi College was already established, for new facilities to house central administration and the relocated New Asia and United colleges.
caption: A view of the campus in Ma Liu Shui
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