Dear colleagues and students,
Good day to you all. Today, I am very delighted to share with you a piece of good news: the UIC-Senate has approved the 2017-18 academic calendar; in other words, we will meet you all in the new campus at Jintong Road starting from 19 September 2017! Though part of me is loath to say goodbye to the existing campus for it carries 12-years’ memories of the College, I believe the relocation is necessary for the well-being of the UIC community.
Ever since its inception in 2005, UIC aspires to provide its students and staff with an intellectually stimulating and vigorous environment which is conducive to teaching, learning and research. That being said, the space constraints as experienced by all of us at the existing campus do pose great challenges to the development of the College. Fortunately, the endeavours made by UIC in the last decade in providing an exceptional liberal arts education to students are greatly applauded and fully acknowledged by the Zhuhai Municipal People’s Government. In June 2014, the Government and UIC signed a collaborative agreement under which 300 mu (approximately 264,000 square metres) of land in the historic Huitong Village was earmarked for UIC’s continual development and enhancement. We started the land-levelling process in August 2015 and the construction has been in full swing since then.
The teaching area of UIC’s new premises takes up about 195,000 square metres, five times the teaching area of the existing one at Jinfeng Road, and is designed for a population of a total of 6,000 undergraduates and 1,000 staff members. Enriched with a sophisticated array of “state-of-the-art” facilities and amenities in arboretum-like environs, the new campus will offer the UIC community a sustainable yet vibrant and physically cohesive teaching and learning environment. All these new enhancements reflect our spearheading initiatives in making UIC a unique and distinguished liberal arts college in the Mainland.
After two years’ hard work, the Culture Creativity Centre, the Sports Complex, the University Hall, the Theatre, the Administration Building, the Teaching Blocks and the Student Hostels, among others, have topped up one after another. It is pleased to note that such a huge-scale construction project goes well on track to meet the extremely tight deadline. In June this year, the ninth Graduation Ceremony will be held for the first time in the University Hall. As mentioned above, over 6,000 students and staff members will settle in the new campus in the coming September. With the freshmen embarking on their new journey at UIC on 5 September and the rest of students return to us on 18 and 19 September, I sincerely hope that everyone will enjoy our new campus that is energetic, open, accommodative and user-friendly. For sure, there will be difficult moments with the surroundings and municipal services to be perfected, just like what happened 12 years ago when the Jinfeng Road campus came into operation. Rome was not built in a day and so does our new home; there is still much to be done. Your patience and understanding in this regard means a lot to us!
The successful completion of the new campus construction project within such a hectic schedule signifies the dedication and devotion of a great number of people. On behalf of UIC, I would like to seize this opportunity to express our most sincere gratitude to the Zhuhai Municipal People’s Government for their staunch support; to the planning team and the construction team of the new campus for their untiring efforts; and to all staff, students, alumni and parents for sharing and embracing our vision, mission and goals.
The new campus at Jintong Road is going to open a new chapter of UIC’s history. With the unstinting support of all UICers, I am utterly convinced that we have come closer to the establishment of a first-class liberal arts College; but we want to achieve more. I call upon each of you to help us to make a remarkable difference in China’s higher education landscape and to bring greater benefits to the society, the nation and the world!
Professor Ng Ching-Fai
President
