Entrepreneurship
The world is changing rapidly. Increasingly, the success of a society depends on its ability to adopt and create changes. Many initiatives on CUHK campus aim at equipping students with creativity and flexibility so that they can become change agents when they join the work force.
CUHK has a history of cultivating entrepreneurial thinking and building capacity. The Center for Entrepreneurship (CfE) was founded in 2005 for researchers and practitioners to explore different areas of entrepreneurship. The Center for Innovation and Technology (CINTEC), a technology transfer arm in theFaculty of Engineering, has served as a bridge between the Faculty and the industry since 1999.
Student entrepreneurship has become a new focus when a Pre-Incubation Center (Pi Center), with a floor space of 2700 square feet, was established in early 2014. Students who are selected after a competitive process are provided with work space, facility, and a mentorship service to work on their ventures. Conveniently located on CUHK campus, Pi Center provides an excellent venue for many workshops and seminars, creating many opportunities for its inhabitants andsparking the interest of many who walk by.
Student entrepreneurship has reached another height in late 2014 when the Innovation and Technology Commission of the Hong Kong SAR Government launched a new funding scheme for CUHK to enable their students and professors to launch their own independent companies. This new funding scheme, known as Technology Start-Up Support Scheme for Universities (TSSSU), provides up to $4M per year for CUHK students and professors to commercialize R&D results. Students and professors are selected based on their business proposals by a panel of industrial experts.
Of course, entrepreneurship is not just about launching startups. There is also a strong emphasis in creating social impact. At CUHK, all entrepreneurial initiatives focus on building the mindset, attitude, and skills for students of diverse background to collaborate under different roles. It is the experience of going through many ups and downs in developing ventures and building companies that students learn about handling failure, learn about perseverance, learn about conflict resolution, and—most importantly—learn about themselves.