PolyU and the Belt and Road: Partnerships, Training, and Overseas Project Networks Along the Corridor

This document belongs to the "PolyU WILD · 09 Internationalisation" module. Information is current as of June 2026; key figures are based on official sources and verified locally. For a broader account of PolyU's comprehensive global partnership network (390+ institutions, 600+ agreements), see the sister document global-partnerships.md; for research activity in the Greater Bay Area and mainland China, see mainland-and-gba.md.

In a sentence: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) serves as a significant nexus for higher-education cooperation along the Belt and Road—anchored by its role as a co-founder of the University Alliance of the Silk Road (UASR, 2015), two flagship professional training programmes in energy and railways that have together reached over 900 professionals from 44 countries and territories, and a collaborative network spanning the region built through seven multilateral alliances, dedicated funding schemes, and several scholarship programmes.

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# 1. What role does PolyU play in the Belt and Road Initiative?

PolyU's Belt and Road work is coordinated by the Global Engagement Office (GEO), whose core mission is "to facilitate academic exchanges, research collaborations and partnerships with institutions in the Belt and Road regions." Its approach is not one of broad diplomatic signalling, but of deep integration with PolyU's strengths in engineering, rehabilitation sciences, and applied technology—substantiated by verifiable training numbers and multilateral alliance memberships.

PolyU's engagement within the Belt and Road framework operates on four tiers:

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# 2. Which Belt and Road multilateral alliances has PolyU joined?

PolyU is a member or co-founder of seven verifiable Belt and Road-themed alliances. According to the official GEO alliances page^※, the details are as follows:

PolyU's position within UASR is particularly prominent. On 30 November 2024^※, in its capacity as Rotating Chair, PolyU hosted the "UASR Presidents Forum and Executive Council Meeting" in Hong Kong. The theme was "Strategy for Global Engagement along the Silk Road," focusing on student mobility, university–industry collaboration, and the internationalisation of higher education. The forum also formed part of the commemorative events marking the 30th anniversary of PolyU attaining university status.

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# 3. The Flagship Energy Programme: Nine years, 44 countries, over 900 participants—what lies behind the numbers?

The "Belt and Road Advanced Programme in Power and Energy" is by far the largest-scale and longest-running single educational project under PolyU's Belt and Road umbrella. It is jointly organised by PolyU, Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU), the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), and HK Electric.

The programme was launched in 2018^※ and had reached its ninth iteration by 2026. The core metrics are:

In June 2024^※, the four parties signed an agreement extending the collaboration for a further four years through to 2028, with the next phase explicitly focusing on conducting field research in Belt and Road countries to develop localised solutions for power infrastructure. At the extension ceremony, Prof. H.C. Man, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at PolyU, noted that as a founding member of UASR, PolyU had been deeply engaged in educational cooperation along the Belt and Road for over a decade.

Each iteration of the programme lasts roughly two weeks, featuring thematic lectures, seminars, and site visits to State Grid training facilities and national key laboratories in Xi'an and Jinan, as well as HK Electric's Lamma Power Station and research institutes at Hong Kong Science Park. The 2026 (ninth) iteration was themed "AI-empowered novel power systems," addressing carbon neutrality and energy security.

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# 4. Railway Training: What has the tripartite alliance of PolyU, Beijing Jiaotong University, and the MTR Academy achieved?

On 26 August 2024, PolyU, Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU), and the MTR Academy signed a three-year cooperation agreement^※ to jointly launch the "Belt and Road Advanced Professional Development Programme in Railway Transport," aimed at cultivating railway professionals for countries and territories along the Belt and Road.

The programme's core framework stipulates at least one training session per year during the three-year agreement period, with built-in flexibility to expand into other areas of cooperation. The first session was officially launched in April 2025, with the participation of 44 senior railway executives and academics from 13 countries and territories.

The training blends academic and practical content: thematic lectures and interactive seminars take place on the campuses of PolyU and BJTU, while field visits cover MTR's Ho Tung Lau Maintenance Centre and Tai Wai Training Centre (showcasing smart railway technologies including VR driving simulators), as well as PolyU's Smart Railway Research Laboratory and BJTU's research facilities. The stated objective of the agreement is to "foster railway talent development and technical exchange and cooperation among Belt and Road countries and regions, and promote sustainable development of infrastructure, economy and people's livelihood."^※

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# 5. What is the UASR "Engineering Medicine" sub-alliance, and who are its members?

On 13 December 2024, PolyU and Xi'an Jiaotong University jointly established the "UASR Sub-Alliance for Convergent Innovation in Engineering Medicine." According to the GEO announcement^※:

• Joint founders: PolyU's Department of Rehabilitation Sciences × The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University
• Founding members: Approximately 50 institutions from 18 Belt and Road countries have joined
• Core mission: "To integrate medicine and engineering, and promote the translation and application of technological advances in addressing real-world clinical challenges"

This sub-alliance represents the intersection of PolyU's established strength in rehabilitation sciences (a field in which it is a leader in Asia) and the Belt and Road platform, with the aim of extending pathways for engineering and technology translation into regions along the corridor with weaker healthcare systems.

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# 6. Why is PolyU's collaboration with Mongolia representative?

Mongolia is a significant overland node within the Belt and Road, and PolyU's collaboration with Mongolia illustrates the complete pathway from a Memorandum of Understanding to substantive academic exchange under the BRI framework.

On 15 January 2024, PolyU's Department of Rehabilitation Sciences and the Department of Physical and Occupational Therapy at the Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences (MNUMS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)^※, marking PolyU's first formal collaboration with a Mongolian higher education institution. This MoU was built on a pilot visit in May 2023, supported by a PolyU Belt and Road funding scheme, during which 12 PolyU Rehabilitation Sciences students travelled to Mongolia to gain practical experience in occupational therapy.

The exchange has since continued and deepened:

This case exemplifies the disciplinary character of PolyU's Belt and Road work: leveraging the professional expertise of rehabilitation sciences as the medium to build sustainable academic partnerships in resource-constrained countries along the corridor.

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# 7. How do Belt and Road international students study at PolyU? What funding channels exist?

PolyU has integrated support for Belt and Road international students across multiple policy streams. According to a university report in March 2026^※, of the roughly 1,100 new non-local students enrolled in the 2025/26 academic year, more than 30% came from countries and territories along the Belt and Road.

The main scholarship and funding channels are as follows:

Beyond scholarships, the GEO administers two academic funding schemes to support Belt and Road activities at the departmental level:

• Belt and Road Networking Initiative: Funds departments to organise Belt and Road-related seminars and academic activities; up to HK$200,000^※ per batch, on a 1:1 matching basis, with each faculty allowed one application per year.
• KC Wong Belt and Road Visiting Fellows Scheme: Supports up to ten scholars or educators per year from institutions along the Belt and Road to visit PolyU for academic exchanges lasting one to two weeks.

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# 8. Beyond alliances and training, what other concrete cross-border collaborations and activities exist?

# Hexi Corridor Study Tour (2024)

From 20 to 29 May 2024, PolyU and Xi'an Jiaotong University jointly organised the "UASR Hexi Corridor Study Tour," with 30 PolyU students and 8 XJTU students participating. The study tour travelled along the Hexi Corridor—the core artery of the ancient Silk Road—to visit historical and cultural heritage sites, using the historical backdrop to resonate with the contemporary Belt and Road theme. This is a classic example of the "academic alliance + cultural immersion" model.

# Belt and Road Youth Development Summit (2025)

In December 2025, two PolyU undergraduate students from Nepal and Mongolia attended the "4th Belt and Road Youth Development Summit," engaging with over 400 diplomats and youth representatives on the topic of digital innovation—an example of PolyU students directly participating in policy dialogue through the Belt and Road alliance platform.

# Forum of the Belt and Road Alliance Founding Institutions (2023)

On 7 July 2023, PolyU hosted the "Forum of the Belt and Road Alliance Founding Institutions" to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. Eighteen scholars from seven major Belt and Road academic alliances convened to focus on "talent cultivation, knowledge transfer, and research development," and issued a joint statement committing to advancing high-quality Belt and Road higher education cooperation.

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# 9. Where does the disciplinary focus of PolyU's Belt and Road cooperation lie?

Synthesising the preceding sections, PolyU's Belt and Road work exhibits a clear applied-discipline orientation:

This aligns closely with PolyU's foundational identity as an applied-technology university—the dominant modes are engineering-assistance-type and professional talent-training-type cooperation, rather than purely academic conferencing or knowledge-sharing partnerships.

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