City University's new president vowed yesterday to strengthen the university's fundraising ability and make it one of the world's top 100 universities in 10 years.

Way Kuo, who took up the university's top job two weeks ago, pointed out in a press conference that donation to support university development is not a tradition in Hong Kong. But he pledged to raise the number of CityU alumni giving donations.

"There is much potential among our alumni and we are to cultivate that potential," Kuo said.

Kuo said 85 percent of alumni of Harvard University have been donating to support the university's development. Other top universities in the United States also receive donations from 40 percent of their alumni.

Kuo estimated that only four percent of CityU alumni have donated money to the university. He aims to raise the proportion to 25 percent within 10 years.

The CityU will invite a fundraising expert from the US to help establish fundraising strategies in July.

"There are many philanthropists in Hong Kong who constantly donate huge amounts of money to universities," he said. "Some of them make the donations because they are satisfied with the performance of the university's graduates while some do it for different reasons. There is not a foolproof way to attract donations."

In the US, institutions will adopt a marketing approach to attract alumni to donate. For example, universities will keep a database of the alumni and keep updating them with the universities' development.

Kuo said alumni donations are crucial to a university's ranking, citing Harvard as an example.

He added that his goal for the next 10 years is to help the CityU to become one of the world's 100 best universities.

On research development, Kuo said the university will focus on energy development and biomedical science.

He believed that these two subjects will be crucial to Hong Kong's development as its population ages.

The university has already invited two experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Washington to ensemble an advisory board to guide the develop ment of the university's academic work.

Kuo said the university will offer attractive remuneration packages to lure overseas talents and retain local staff.

Meanwhile, he hopes to set aside special funds each year to reward excellent performance in teaching and research.

(HK Edition 05/27/2008 page1)