Knowledge Transfer and Sharing with the Community

The UGC is encouraged to note that over the years, knowledge transfer and sharing activities have taken root in multiple disciplines of funded universities, including health sciences, arts and humanities and the social sciences, architecture, business and economics, city planning and the environment, science and technology as well as engineering. The UGC strongly believes that the transfer and sharing of knowledge between universities and the society helps bring about socio-economic impact and improvements to the community and businesses. This in turn also helps enrich universities' research mission, thereby enhancing the international competitiveness of the local higher education sector. The UGC believes that the overall level of such activities is healthy and there are also indications that it is increasing.

The transfer and sharing of knowledge is frequently described as the "third mission" (apart from teaching and research) by the higher education sectors of many advanced economies. More specifically, the UGC sees it as an important issue having implications on the international competitiveness of the local higher education sector and capable of enriching research policies.

To the UGC, knowledge transfer and sharing is wider than the idea of technology transfer, and should also encompass a tacit aspect. We have therefore used the following as the definition -

"The systems and processes by which knowledge, including technology, know-how, expertise and skills are transferred and shared between higher education institutions and society, leading to innovative, profitable or economic or social improvements."

It should be stressed that knowledge transfer and sharing is a two-way process. Not only would the community enjoy realisable benefit from the knowledge transferred and shared from universities, but academics and researchers would also be enriched by having closer ties with the larger community.

In addition, the UGC recognises the importance of sharing knowledge with society in bringing about socio-economic benefits and impact to the community and businesses, as well as to cultivate public appreciation for the valuable contributions of the higher education sector to society as a whole. To promote the sharing of knowledge between universities and society, the UGC has been providing recurrent grants to funded-universities to strengthen and expand related initiatives starting from 2009/10. In general, universities mainly utilise the additional funding to strengthen its support for knowledge sharing activities, such as staff training, internal promotion, organising public events like lectures and exhibitions, covering operational expenses of dedicated support units, and financing patent-related costs. Universities publish annual reports that showcases their accomplishments to the public through specific impact cases and performance indicators.

The universities' / institutions' 2022/23 2021/22 2020/21 2019/20 2018/19 2017/18 2016/17 2015/16 2014/15 2013/14 2012/13 2011/12 2010/11 2009/10 Annual Report on KT Recurrent Funding can be downloaded here: