Media

First University-wide Student Excellence Scheme in HKU
established through the support of Mr Chui Wai-Kwan

10 Sep 2013

The “Chui’s Student Excellence Scheme” was established in HKU with a generous donation from Mr Chui Wai-Kwan (徐維均), a renowned master chef and a staunch supporter of the University who, in 2008, contributed towards the establishment of the “Chui Fook-Chuen Professorship in Molecular Medicine”.

With government matching, the Fund totals HK$2 million in support of students’ whole person development.  This is the first university-wide student excellence scheme instituted to encourage and enable outstanding HKU students to fulfil their potential through engaging in overseas competitions, academic conferences and service learning.

Over the years, HKU students won numerous awards and took part in many service programmes, third year student Thomas Lai noted: “I went to Kenya with my classmates who received support from HKU’s ‘First-in-the-Family Education Fund’. There we built water filters and set up mosquito nets for the children to fight malaria. This coming December we are going to Cambodia to build toilet facilities in schools that suffer from flooding. I believe that the ‘Chui’s Student Excellence Scheme’ will encourage more passionate students to initiate and take part in community service.” After his trip to Kenya, Thomas decided to change his major from Quantitative Finance to Mechanical Engineering so he can help more people in underdeveloped countries through constructing basic facilities for them.

Medical PhD candidate Christopher See, who won the international competition FameLab, said about the Scheme: “After winning the competition, I was invited to give science talks in Prague and the Hong Kong Science Museum, helping me to fulfil my wish to promote medical education to the general public. I am so glad that this new scheme will support students to take part in overseas competitions, which gives them exposure and the opportunity to bring honour to Hong Kong and HKU.”

As a token of thanks, the Vice-Chancellor Professor Lap-Chee Tsui thoughtfully designed a gift of an illustration of a seven-fold fortune symbol which is ingeniously derived from the well-known structure of molecular chaperones. 

“Resources is very important to student development, thus I am more than happy to contribute and help the students to live up to their dreams”, said Mr Chui Wai Kwan.

For media enquiries, please contact Ms Linna Ku (Manager (Development), Development & Alumni Affairs Office), tel: 2219 4837 email: linnaku@hku.hk, or Ms Melanie Wan (Senior Manager (Media Relations), Communications and Public Affairs Office), tel: 2859 2600 email: melwkwan@hku.hk.

 (From left to right) Medical PhD candidate Christopher See, MPH student Joy Leung, BEng Year 3 student Thomas Lai, Mr Chui Wai-Kwan, BEng Year 2 student Rainy Wang, BSocSc Year 4 student Yuri Hung and Vice-Chancellor Professor Lap-Chee Tsui

 HKU Vice Chancellor Professor Lap-Chee Tsui presents to Mr Chui a gift which is an illustration of a seven-fold fortune symbol derived from the well-known structure of molecular chaperones. 

 Thomas talks about his service learning experience in Kenya