University of Hong Kong
The University of Hong Kong was founded in 1911. Governor Sir Frederick Lugard had proposed to establish a university in Hong Kong to compete with the other Great Powers opening universities in China, most notably Prussia, which had just opened the Tongji German Medical School in Shanghai.
Sir Hormusjee Naorojee Mody, an Indian businessman in Hong Kong, learned of Lugard's plan and pledged to donate HK$150,000 towards the construction and HK$30,000 towards other costs. 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. The Government contributed a site at West Point. 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, "Fatshan", and the subsequent unrest stirred by the Self-Government Society). Along with donations from other donors including the British Government and companies such as HSBC, Lugard finally had enough to fund the building of the university.
Queen's College, Hong Kong
The school moved to Aberdeen Street in 1889. At that time, the school was one of the largest and most expensive buildings in Hong Kong, costing the government more than HKD 250,000 for its construction. In 1894, the school was renamed Queen's College. The Government originally planned to expand the College to an imperial university since the 1870s, but the idea was abandoned due to the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, when the British colonial government worried about the benefits it enjoyed in the Far-East may be jeopardised by the expanding Japanese power. Therefore, it was crucial to establish a university with the purpose to train graduates in war-related subjects, such as engineering and medicine, and this led to the establishment of the University of Hong Kong in 1910, while Queen's College remained as a secondary school in Hong Kong.