Thirty-three outstanding student papers were recognised for their excellence at the 6th Outstanding Academic Papers by Students (OAPS) awards ceremony on 15 April at City University of Hong Kong (CityU).

OAPS, a joint initiative of the Run Run Shaw Library and CityU’s academic departments, has digitalised 33 best papers, which were nominated by 11 CityU departments, and placed them in the online CityU Institutional Repository's OAPS collection.

Initiated by CityU, the project promotes scholarly communication and intellectual exchange across disciplines, regions and cultures. It has drawn considerable interest from universities worldwide, developing collaborative partnerships with universities in the United States and the Asia-Pacific rim, such as mainland China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. Yonsei University, South Korea, joined the project this year.

“OAPS is emblematic of the exciting developments taking place not just at CityU but all around the world in higher education institutions,” said Professor Arthur Ellis, Provost of CityU, in his welcoming address at the awards ceremony. “OAPS captures the major concept of our new Discovery-enriched Curriculum (DEC)—that students can make an original discovery while at CityU. It is an important element in CityU’s internationalisation strategy, too, building partnerships with universities worldwide.”

In his congratulatory remarks, Dr Kazumi Shimizu, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Economics, Waseda University, said, “Although Japan has experienced a recent terrible disaster, we must continue to educate and foster research as usual. OAPS provides opportunities for young scholars and students to improve research productivity and help rebuild for the future.”

Mr Choy Fatt-cheong, University Librarian, Nanyang Technological University, and Professor David Randall, Director, Office of Education Development and General Education, CityU, coordinated a sharing session during the ceremony at which the award-winning students shared their research experience.