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Universities in Hong Kong
OpinionComment

Hong Kong leader’s role as university chancellor must end to protect academic freedom

Kevin Carrico says though academic freedom is alive and well in Hong Kong, it is under constant threat, especially in the aftermath of the Occupy protests in 2014. For a start, it’s time to abolish the colonial practice of naming the city’s leader as the chancellor of its universities

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University of Hong Kong students call for autonomy in university governance, at a rally in January 2016. Photo: Sam Tsang
Kevin Carrico

Pro-establishment figures in Hong Kong, dismissing students’ growing political activism in recent years, claim that universities have become “too politicised”. This is true, but not in the sense that these figures claim. Universities in Hong Kong have become too politicised because they are being directly influenced by agents primarily accountable to the chief executive, who is in turn primarily accountable to Beijing, a violator of academic freedoms.

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In a city that is proudly home to some of the best research universities in the region, with academics and students fully capable of governing themselves, it is well past time to ask: why is Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, your university chancellor?
Hong Kong Watch has just released the report, “Academic Freedom in Hong Kong since 2015: Between Two Systems”. It examines growing threats to academic freedom in higher education in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region since the mass protests of the Occupy movement. The status of academic freedom in the city, I found, is a microcosm of the status of the “one country, two systems” formula as a whole: it is still alive and generally well, thanks to constant public vigilance, but also lives on under constant threat.
Among the report’s many recommendations is to abolish the colonial practice wherein the city’s chief executive is named the chancellor of universities, thereby returning university governance to the university communities themselves.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam should not be named chancellor of Hong Kong’s universities. Instead, university governance should be returned to the university communities themselves. Photo: Sam Tsang
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam should not be named chancellor of Hong Kong’s universities. Instead, university governance should be returned to the university communities themselves. Photo: Sam Tsang
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In colonial times, the colony’s governor was named chancellor of universities. While the current practice of naming the chief executive as chancellor is thus based on a long-standing tradition, there are important distinctions in its implementation before and after the handover to China in 1997.

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