This year marks the 15th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China.
Cooperation between Hong Kong and the mainland has been growing in almost every aspect.
China Report takes a look.
1ST CO-FOUNDED COLLEGE
United International College (UIC), jointly founded by Beijing Normal University and Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) in south China's Zhuhai city in 2005, is the first co-founded college by Hong Kong and mainland.
Its mission is to build a new model for liberal arts education in the mainland, and to nurture talented future graduates with international perspectives.
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): ZEE SZE YONG, VP OF UIC
"As liberal-arts education, we tend to put emphasis more on the general education, on what we like to call the 'Whole Person Education'. In that sense, in stead of training students to be specialists in certain area, in which we do, but nonetheless, in addition to that, we put more emphasis on educating the students on other areas as well."
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): YANG DAIMIN, ALUMNUS OF UIC
"We can organize the students together to finish some projects that we have never done before. And I think it's more international." The college has been investing most of its income on upgrading teaching facilities, as well as campus infrastructure and facilities, such as libraries.
Its faculty members are recruited from more than 20 countries and regions.
It attracts over 4,000 students from the mainland, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Korea, the U.K., France, Nigeria and so on.
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): HUANG SILING, STUDENT OF UIC
"Why I choose this, is because it kind of provides an advantage that I understand more about the China market, because when I was in Hong Kong I had no this kind of opportunity to know that." All students here are educated in English, and could choose various courses taught by a highly internationalized faculty.
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): ZEE SZE YONG, VP OF UIC
"We thought China has already opened up for already 30 years. So Chinese now has to face the world. And if they do that, one of the most important things is that they have to communicate with other people. And now English is the international language. Everybody, if you want to communicate on an international level, you have to be pretty good at English."
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): YANG DAIMIN, ALUMNUS OF UIC
"Essays and lessons were done and taught by English. It's a very important environment for all the people, especially for our students here, and I think it's the most important element."
Not only HKBU, other Hong Kong universities, including the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Polytechnic University, are in talks with their mainland counterparts on establishing branches on the mainland.
Last month, Hong Kong and higher education institutions in the mainland signed a high-level cooperation agreement, which focuses on bilateral visits, nurturing talents and research.
The central government is planning to set up a dedicated fund to support teachers and students in Hong Kong to participate in short-term exchange and visit programs.
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