HKBU Geography department best in Hong Kong?

It might be worth breaking a two and a half year (!) long silence to share my joy that my Department of Geography at HKBU has come out first of the three Hong Kong Geography Departments in the 2014 Research Assessment Exercise, and the Faculty of Social Sciences of HKBU is the fourth best Faculty of Social Sciences in Hong Kong.

Of course there are always different ways to interpret data, but I prefer to interpret them like the Olympics: Starting with the number of gold medals (4 stars), then silver medals (3 stars), and then bronze medals (2 stars) HKBU has come ahead of CUHK and HKU. This in spite of the lower budget and fewer facilities (e.g. a much smaller library) we are given.

The results are almost as good for the faculty as a whole. For this RAE, the following departments (or "Cost Centres") are included in this Panel (in the RAE they are called Panels rather than Departments): Geography, Political Sciences (which in HKBU is called Government and International Studies), History, Social Work, Sociology and Communication and Media Studies (as well as Psychology, which we don't have). This more or less corresponds to the Faculty of Social Sciences (though of course different Universities include different Departments in that Faculty).

Using the same system as above, the Faculty of Social Sciences of HKBU is the fourth best Faculty of Social Sciences in Hong Kong. Out of eight, this is a very good result considering the limited funds and facilities we receive. We come just after the big-three universities, which receive a disproportionate amount of funding and facilities. Which shows how well we spend government funds! :)

Well done to us! :)