My Take | Not all 'interference' is academic

Much of the current row over academic freedom and alleged interference by the Leung Chun-ying administration is misguided. Not everything that has to do with the operations of an institution of higher learning is academic. Not all outside interference, questioning or criticism amounts to a challenge to academic freedom.

Academic freedom simply means the freedom of intellectual inquiry by faculty members in their fields of expertise or interest. Nothing more, nothing less. How a university appoints its head or deputy heads - or draws up honour lists to please patrons or donors to raise money and enhance prestige - can be quite removed from the issue of academic freedom. These have more to do with existing laws - which in Hong Kong are the ordinances governing our public universities - and institutional tradition.

In this context, it's better to speak of institutional autonomy, much like the way the legal, medical and other professional bodies enjoy their own autonomy and self-regulation. These bodies are rightly alert and resistant to outside interference, and in that sense, so should universities be.

I have no idea if government advisers or officials have tried to interfere with the expected appointment of law professor Johannes Chan Man-mun to be the pro-vice-chancellor of the University of Hong Kong. But it is not necessarily academic interference even if they did. It's not even clear if there was interference at all. I believe Executive Councillor Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fan when she said: "Officials are afraid to even phone the universities, let alone interfere with them." What she means is that the Robert Chung Ting-yiu affair - when the Tung Chee-hwa administration tried to interfere with the HKU pollster's work - has scared them off.

Still there are several points of substance that have emerged from the row over Chan. The law professor has questioned why the chief executive should still be the nominal head of all public universities. It is a colonial anachronism and should end.

Secondly, Baptist University has stopped submitting its lists of honorary doctorate degrees to the chief executive for approval. Other universities should do the same - to enhance their autonomy.