Following are the remarks made by the Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, at a media session on the latest progress of the establishment of the new medical school today (November 18):
 
Reporter: First, I would like to ask about what set UST apart from the other two contenders in setting up the third medical school in Hong Kong? Was the university rankings or academic performances also taken into account when deciding which school to be put forward for the ExCo to approve? Secondly, you also mentioned that UST will first have its medical school in Clear Water Bay starting from the 2028 intake. Can you also explain why UST, or the Government, sees the needs to first have the transitional arrangement, instead of having the school be set up in the Northern Metropolis?

Secretary for Health: As I have emphasised, the criteria for making this decision to let Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (UST) build our third medical school is based on a basket of criteria, 10 major criteria, and it is a holistic assessment. It is not based on one single criteria. The UST has a lot of important advantages in terms of, for example, their innovative strategic positioning and building up of clinical scientists. Their university ranking is certainly one of the matters that we considered, as we see the UST has a more global outlook. The financial model that they proposed is more in line with the policy of having a matching in our subsidy in this important venture. 

     About the reason for having an interim campus in Clear Water Bay, the Ngau Tam Mei site would not be ready by the year of 2028, which is the proposed year for the initiation of the medical curriculum for the UST, so we have to have an interim campus for teaching. The Ngau Tam Mei campus would likely be ready in around 2034 to 2035, so we have to rely on the interim campus for teaching for the time being. 

     Also, because the teaching hospital in Ngau Tam Mei would not be ready for quite a while, we will need to rely on some other teaching hospitals which are  actually included in the proposal by the UST, and this is also the reason that we have to seek the support from the Hospital Authority (HA), which is the main healthcare service provider taking care of about 90 per cent of people in Hong Kong. At present, the two universities also rely on the HA hospitals for teaching, and students are actually sent to different hospital clusters for learning, so we will co-ordinate with the Hospital Authority to support the new medical school's clinical teaching. 
 
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the remarks.)

Ends/Tuesday, November 18, 2025
Issued at HKT 18:11

NNNN