The past week has undoubtedly been a week of autumn harvest for the higher education sector in Hong Kong. Firstly, 1534 Hong Kong scholars were selected for the 2024 "Top 2% of Global Scientists" ranking. A few days later, The Times Higher Education (THE) in the UK released the 2025 World University Rankings, with five universities in Hong Kong firmly ranking among the top 100 in the world. This once again proves the strong strength of Hong Kong's higher education institutions. For a long time, Hong Kong's higher education institutions have been known for their "three highs" advantages, namely high international rankings, high-quality talents, and high internationalization. At the same time, with excellent educational infrastructure, they attract a large number of outstanding students from home and abroad to apply every year. Earlier, the SAR government announced that it would double the non local student quota for subsidized tertiary institutions (Hong Kong higher education institutions) to 40%, allowing universities to expand. Wang Jiache, Director of Admission and Student Financial Assistance at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), has stated that this year's high school entrance examination admission scores have not decreased but increased, reaching a new high in nearly five years. The admissions officers of two other well-known universities, the University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), also admitted that the quality of admissions this year has improved compared to previous years. This sustained surge in enrollment enthusiasm is evident from this. Under the expectation of the central government to build Hong Kong into an "international high-end talent gathering highland" and the goal of the SAR government to build Hong Kong into an international tertiary education hub, Hong Kong universities are not satisfied with their existing advantages and are constantly striving to keep up with the times. They not only connect with mainland cities in the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area to establish campuses, but also leverage regional cooperation advantages to complement each other and achieve win-win results. They have also made remarkable progress in the transformation and commercialization of scientific research achievements, which were previously considered weak. Taking the "Industry University Research+Program" launched by the SAR government as an example, the first batch of 24 university research and development teams received funding, with a total value of over 1 billion Hong Kong dollars (HKD), covering fields such as health and pharmaceutical sciences, new materials and new energy, artificial intelligence and robotics, advanced manufacturing, environmental agriculture, and marine biotechnology. Each university is also committed to strengthening the innovation and science ecosystem, deepening the cooperation between government, industry, academia, and research, and incubating startups. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is one of the top players. As of September 2023, members of HKUST have established 1747 active start-up companies, including 10 unicorn companies and 13 successfully delisted companies (through IPO fundraising or mergers and acquisitions), creating over 400 billion yuan in economic benefits. In summary, it is not difficult to see that in the past few years, the higher education sector in Hong Kong has always been striving for excellence, continuously improving its competitiveness and influence, and is within reach of the goal of becoming an international hub for tertiary education. In my opinion, as a "hub", promoting communication functions is crucial, so the remaining few steps may still require more efforts to deepen cooperation at home and abroad. On the one hand, it is inevitably a coordinated development with higher education in mainland China. At present, many universities in Hong Kong have established campuses in mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area, taking root. From now on, it is logical to continue to expand their influence and establish interdisciplinary cooperation with more mainland cities, such as school alliances, to create favorable conditions for scientific research development, knowledge transfer, and industrialization, and promote high-level academic research activities in the region. On the other hand, the importance of internationalization cannot be ignored, which has always been an advantage of Hong Kong's higher education institutions. Local universities can strengthen cooperation with internationally renowned universities and research institutions, carry out more international exchange programs, and attract more international students and scholars to study and research in Hong Kong. Recently, presidents of various universities in Hong Kong gathered at the 2024 Top 10 Presidents Forum to express their opinions on the development of higher education. People believe that the next 10 years will be a golden opportunity for the development of higher education in Hong Kong. The prospect is broad, and competition and challenges should not be underestimated. The higher education sector in Hong Kong is well aware of the dual mission of talent cultivation and scientific research, which is to "sail against the current and fall behind if you don't advance". I believe that with this joint effort, Hong Kong's higher education will continue to shine on the international stage, and Hong Kong's becoming an international hub for tertiary education is just around the corner. (New Society)