From 14 January 2026 to 22 March 2026, we conducted a survey to understand how HKU staff and students obtain University information, as well as to collect feedback on the eNotices System and Bulk Email System.
A total of 859 responses (162 staff and 697 students) were received providing valuable insights that are summarised below.
Overall Satisfaction
- 60% of respondents indicated that they were satisfied or very satisfied with the current communication channels used to obtain HKU news and notices.
Usage and Preferences
- 80% of respondents read emails and eNotices to obtain HKU information, and nearly 80% prefer these channels as their primary means of receiving information.
- More than 70% of staff and around 40% of students reported that they always or often read HKU Daily Notices (the daily eNotices email digest sent at midnight).
- Over 70% of respondents always or often read important notice emails, while over 50% do so for general notice emails.
- Staff generally have a higher reading rate for HKU Daily Notices, important notice emails, and general notice emails compared with students.
Email Volume and Consolidation
- Despite the high usage, over 50% of respondents feel that there are too many general notice emails.
- More than 70% of respondents expressed a preference for receiving a daily consolidated digest instead of individual notice emails.
- A notable difference was observed between staff and students:
- 57% of students feel they receive too many general notice emails.
- In contrast, 67% of staff feel the current number of general notice emails is just right.
We believe that the HKU Daily Email Digest for staff (a consolidated digest of bulk emails sent to staff at around 7:00 am each day) has significantly reduced the volume of general notice emails received by staff and has contributed positively to user satisfaction.
Key Concerns from Qualitative Feedback
We also analysed comments from staff and students and summarised the feedback using word clouds (shown below).
Staff most concerns
Students most concerns
- Common concerns: Both staff and students feel that they receive too much information and many repetitive messages, which may cause important messages to be overlooked.
- Staff feedback: Staff find it time-consuming to read all messages and suggest avoiding sending the same information through multiple, similar channels.
- Student feedback: Students find the high volume of irrelevant information annoying.
- Shared expectations:
Both groups expressed a strong desire to:
- Consolidate similar communication channels
- Establish new channels, such as HKU App notification.
- Filter information so that only relevant and interested topics are delivered to them