The university currently has ten academic faculties and 20 residential halls and colleges for its students, with English being its main medium of instruction and assessment.

Among them is Dr Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Republic of China, a graduate of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, the predecessor of HKU.

Notable alumni in the field of politics include Anson Chan, Carrie Lam, Jasper Tsang and Regina Ip.

Lugard's efforts reflected metropolitan development as he sought to make more recent universities (such as Birmingham and Leeds) the model for a secular institution.

Sir Lugard saw the establishment of the university as an opportunity to promote British culture to China and the Chinese people through education, in turn enhancing Britain's influence in the Far East.

[13] The Hong Kong Government and the business sector in southern China, which were both equally eager to learn "secrets of the West's success" (referring to technological advances made since the Industrial Revolution), also gave their support.

Swire Group contributed £40,000 to endow a chair in Engineering, in addition to thousands of dollars in equipment (its aim was partly to bolster its corporate image following the death of a passenger on board one of its ships, SS Fatshan, and the subsequent unrest stirred by the Self-Government Society).

Donations from wealthy businessmen Tang Chi Ngong and Fung Ping Shan – after whom two campus buildings are named – triggered an emphasis on Chinese cultural education.

[citation needed] After the end of the Second World War, the university reopened and investment in law and the social sciences increased as post-war reconstruction efforts began in earnest.

[21] In a statement to the HKU community, the university vice-chancellor Professor Lap-Chee Tsui admitted that the security arrangements could have been better planned and organised, and apologised to students and alumni for not having been able to prevent the incident.

[25][26] On 10 April 2015, HKU declared itself as the first university in the world to join HeForShe, a UN Women initiative urging men to achieve more female rights.

[31] Stoddart's ground-breaking research has garnered numerous accolades and awards, including the prestigious 2007 King Faisal International Prize in Science.

A selection committee unanimously recommended the council appoint Johannes Chan to the post, which involved the responsibility for staffing and resources, and which had been left vacant for five years.

[35][36] Owing to his liberal political stance, Chan was roundly criticised by Communist Party-controlled media including Wen Wei Po, Ta Kung Pao, and Global Times, which together published at least 350 articles attacking him.

[35][40] Six members of the council are directly appointed by the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, who acts as chancellor of all publicly funded tertiary institutions in the territory.

[42] Five members are delegates to the National People's Congress in Beijing and, as such, are obliged to toe the Communist Party line or risk expulsion.

The university lends its name to HKU MTR station, the main public transport access to the campus which had opened on 28 December 2014.

The Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine is situated 4.5 km southwest of the main campus, in the Southern District near Sandy Bay and Pokfulam.

[51] The university also operates the Kadoorie Agricultural Research Centre, which occupies 95,000 square metres (1,020,000 sq ft) of land in the New Territories, and the Swire Institute of Marine Science at the southern tip of the d'Aguilar Peninsula on Hong Kong Island.

Constructed between 1910 and 1912, the Main Building is the university's oldest structure and was sponsored by Sir Hormusjee Naorojee Mody and designed by Architect Messrs Leigh & Orange.

It was opened by Sir William Peel, Governor of Hong Kong, in 1931 and since then further donations have been received for the endowment of teaching Chinese language and literature.

[61] Internationally, applicants with more than 5 A*s in their GCE A-Levels, 75/75 in the Taiwan GSAT, 45/45 in IB, and 16 5** Zhuangyuan (狀元) (the top Gaokao scoring students in their province or city in mainland China) are amongst those matriculated into the University.

[63] Undergraduate candidates are selected according to their relative merit in the local public examination (HKDSEE) and apply online via JUPAS.

All ten faculties and departments provide teaching and supervision for research (MPhil and PhD) students with administration undertaken by the Graduate School.

[72] The HKUL Digital Initiatives, through its digitisation projects, has opened up online access to local collections originally in print format.

Named after its donor, the building consists of masonry on the ground level surmounted by a two-storey red-brick structure with ornamental columns topped by a pediment over its entrance.

The union ceased to be officially recognised by the university after passing a motion in memorial to a deceased assailant who attacked and severely stabbed a police officer on the street during the heights of the protests in 2021, and was later dissolved.

[109] The field resembles the lions on the coat of arms of England, whereas the book on the shield is a common reference to university's role in learning and knowledge.

[115] The recording of the reconstructed University Anthem was recorded by the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Diocesan Choral Society and the former HKU Students' Union Choir (now known as the HKU University Choir), conducted by the Sinfonietta's musical director, Yip Wing-sie, with new orchestration by Dr Chan Hing-yan, Chairperson of the Department of Music.

Among them is Dr Sun Yat-sen, the founder of Republic of China, who was a graduate of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, the predecessor of HKU.