The University of Hong Kong is close to completing its search for a new vice-chancellor, more than a year after Professor Cheng Yiu-chung resigned.
Selectors identified two final candidates, both overseas Chinese, a source said.
They were given a list of 1,500 names by a specially formed search committee last month.
The selection process has been shrouded in secrecy, but the committee is due to decide on a final recommendation soon and to seek endorsement from the university council before Christmas.
One committee member said the preferred candidate would be a renowned academic.
Despite media speculation, it is known Harvard University mathematician Siu Yum-tong and Chinese American scientist Dr David Ho Ta-yi - the inventor of the drugs 'cocktail therapy' for HIV and Aids, for which he was named 'Man of the Year' by Time magazine in 1996 - are not the two final contenders.