2001
Implementation of the second Strategic Plan for 2001-2007.

Formally announced the setting up of Hong Kong Community College to offer an expanded range of Associate Degree programmes.

2002
The University admitted its first batch of foreign students from Europe and Asia to its undergraduate programmes.

A total of 11,273 students, alumni, staff, friends and families together formed the world's largest Human Rainbow, as recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records, at the Hong Kong Stadium in celebration of the University's 65 years of illustrious history.

Inauguration of its third overseas association in Australia.

Opening of the Student Halls of Residence, marking a fundamental change to students' campus life.

2003
The Mars Rock Corer, a soil sampling tool invented by University Fellow and dentist Dr Ng Tze-chuen in collaboration with PolyU scientists, was one of the instruments employed by the European Space Agency in its Mars Express mission.

2004
Signing of a collaborative agreement with the Shenzhen Hi-Tech Industrial Park. The University was the first local tertiary institution to set up research centres and training facilities at the National University Science and Technology Park of the Virtual University Park in Shenzhen.

Inauguration of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Eastern USA) Association, PolyU's fourth overseas association.

With its adherence to delivering application-oriented education and research, PolyU emerged as one of Hong Kong's three best-performing universities in the University Grants Committee's Performance and Role-related Funding Scheme.

2005
PolyU obtained Central Government's approval in 2005 for developing a State Key Laboratory for Chinese Medicine and Molecular Pharmacology at the University's Shenzhen-based Institute of Modern Chinese Medicine. This is the first State Key Laboratory with a focus on Chinese medicine being established on the mainland by a Hong Kong academic institution.

12.9.2005
Visit of Vice-President Zeng Qinghong to witness the latest development of the Nanotechnology Centre Functional and Intelligent Textiles and Apparel at the Institute of Textiles and Clothing. He also officiated at the signing of a co-operation agreement between PolyU and the Beijing Institute of Technology.

9.2.2006
Inauguration of PolyU's fifth overseas association in Singapore.

10.5.2006
Designation of the University as a collaborative research partner for the Beijing Olympics by the Science and Education Department of the Chinese Olympic Committee. Our experts from the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences will help prepare athletes for the Beijing Olympic Games.

12.5.2006
Inauguration of Hong Kong's first and only Confucius Institute of Hong Kong (CIHK) to further promote Chinese language and culture in the territory. CIHK was set up with the authorization of the China National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language.

4.7.2006
Inauguration of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Development Foundation.

14.11.2006
Inauguration of PolyU's sixth overseas association in Northern California in the USA.

2007
Topping-out of the first independent campus of the PolyU-affiliated Hong Kong Community College in Hung Hom Bay.