KE Spotlight - Community Engagement - HKU Knowledge Exchange

Knowledge Exchange Awards 2014

The Faculty Knowledge Exchange (KE) Awards were introduced in 2011 in order to recognize each Faculty's outstanding KE accomplishment that has made demonstrable economic, social or cultural impacts to benefit the community, business/industry, or partner organizations. Following the successful launch of the Faculty KE Awards, the KE Award (Non-Faculty Unit) was introduced in 2012 with the same objective for the independent centres, institutes and units of the University. Results of the 2014 KE Awards are now available.

HKU Geography Chair Professor Jim Chi-yung receives LC Chadwick Award 2014 for Arboricultural Research

HKU Geography Chair Professor Jim Chi-yung has been awarded the LC Chadwick Award for Arboricultural Research by the International Society of Arboriculture. He is the first Asian winner of the highest honour in the field of arboriculture. Apart from his academic impact, he is one of the pioneer academics to bridge town and gown by transferring research-based knowledge to the community for direct adoption and application. Recently, he has successfully convinced the government to set up a tree management office and a landscape planning office at a high-level policy branch, providing for the first time a professional arborist grade in the civil service establishment.

International Conference on Grief and Bereavement in Contemporary Society (ICGB) held at HKU

Over 1,000 scholars, health professionals and experts took part in the tri-annual conference, which was held in Asia for the first time. Over 250 papers and reports were presented during the four-day conference and 20 professional training workshops were held to enhance the skills of healthcare professional and practitioners. According to a study conducted by the HKU Faculty of Social Sciences, death avoidance score of Hong Kong adults aged under 59 (which ranged from 1 to 7 with higher scores indicating greater fear) had reduced significantly from 4.23 in 2007 to 2.2 in 2014, which reflected the general public's attitude towards death had become much more open.

HKU to expand "Youth Quitline" services to contribute to a smoke-free Hong Kong

HKU's "Youth Quitline", established to help young people quit smoking, has received over 5,000 telephone enquiries and provided cessation counselling for 1,257 (up till September, 2013) youth smokers over the past eight years. 21.9% of participants quitted smoking after receiving services of the "Youth Quitline". It was found that the main reasons for young people to quit smoking were to lead a healthy life and save money. The Tobacco Control Office has granted further funding for the University to continue the existing services, as well as to expand the services through multi-media platforms to reach more youth smokers.