CityU inaugurates Honors Class: Forging innovative talent through research training and holistic education
The opening ceremony of the third cohort of the Honors Class was held today at the Ho Yin Convention Centre, Taipa Campus. This year’s cohort attracted hundreds of outstanding students to apply. After a rigorous selection process, 32 students were finally admitted based on merit. Rector Liu Jun; council members Cinitia Chan and Sandy Chan ; and Sun Pei, head of the Honors Class and executive associate dean of the Faculty of Health and Wellness, attended the ceremony.
During the ceremony, Rector Liu Jun offered sincere congratulations to the new cohort. He reviewed the substantial achievements of the past cohorts and stressed that it has always adhere to the philosophy of “creating an innovative talent cultivation model.” Centered on the “five-dimensional competencies” --inner motivation, openness, perseverance, wisdom and leadership--the class selects outstanding students with research potential and, leveraging the resources and mentor team, encourages students to take part in research projects, competitions, industry-academia collaboration and innovative practice. He urged the students to explore boldly and keep breaking beyond their limits, to develop leadership skills and global vision through interdisciplinary collaboration, and in a spirit of pursuing excellence, to grow into future leaders of society and contribute to the development of Macao, the Greater Bay Area and the wider world.
Sun Pei, head of the Honors Class and executive associate dean of the Faculty of Health and Wellness, noted that the Class is centered on research training and designs a progressive research learning system based on students’ needs, including X-Idea, Student Research Training (SRT), and Open Research for Innovation Challenges (ORIC), enabling students to engage with real-world research problems step by step from their first year under one-on-one mentor guidance, thereby cultivating independent research capabilities. He stressed that the core of the Honours Class is not to “take harder courses”, but to “do research”.
On the same day, the Honors Class held a mentor-student meet and matching session. The mentor team for this year’s Honors Class brings together distinguished scholars from different disciplines, with research areas covering green finance, AI privacy protection, psychology and artificial intelligence, health economics, social policy, product design, criminal law, tourism economics, behavioral finance, language education, blockchain privacy and other frontier fields.
During the event, Associate Professor Ren Jianxun, general head of the Honors Class, encouraged students to cherish the learning opportunity, stay curious and eager to learn, dare to explore without fear of failure, and keep pushing beyond their limits on the path of research. As an outstanding mentor with nearly 40 years of teaching experience, Associate Professor Ren said he will always support the students’ growth and safeguard their learning and development.
The successful inauguration of the third cohort marks a new step forward for CityU in innovative talent cultivation. Going forward, the Honors Class will continue to deepen cooperation with renowned academic institutions and enterprises at home and abroad, promote the integration of interdisciplinary research and practice, and cultivate high-end talent with innovation, hands-on ability and a global perspective, promoting tech innovation and social advancement in Macao and the Greater Bay Area.
Also present at the ceremony were Cheng Liying, dean of the School of Education at CityU; Huang Guowen, acting dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; Li Xi, executive associate dean of the Faculty of International Tourism and Management; Huang Jiashun, associate dean of the Faculty of Business; and Chen Wenfeng, deputy head of the Honors Class and program coordinator of psychology at the Faculty of Health and Wellness.
Source: Honours Class
Photo credit: CityU Reporter
