HKU retirement policy needs revising: academics

The University of Hong Kong should revise its retirement policy as it is harming the institution's competitiveness, senior British academics have warned.

The university's policy of forced retirement at age 60 was damaging academics' morale and causing a brain drain, they said, with about 20 scholars having left the institution in recent years because they knew their tenure would not be extended after they reached 60.

Professors at government-funded universities that adhered to the retirement policy could ask to have their contracts extended, but Dr Paul Smethurst, an HKU associate professor of English, said very few professors succeeded in doing so. The arts faculty, for example, decided it would not extend the tenures of any associate professors beyond the age of 60, he said.

Smethurst, 60, who has taught at the university since 1997, said that despite his having secured the School of English's support and getting straight As in his teaching evaluations, the faculty turned down his application to extend his contract last year. He now has to leave HKU in June, he said.

Describing the policy as "illogical", Smethurst said: "The policy might be justified if people were no longer able to carry out their duties … but in a university, it doesn't work like that. If you cut out staff, it hurts the morale. You're … losing senior teachers with many publications, which affects HKU's citations count."

Earlier this month, HKU was ranked the 43rd best university in the world by Times Higher Education. The ranking this year was a significant drop from the 21st place it secured just four years ago. The institution also dropped from being Asia's best university to fourth place this year - behind other universities in Japan, Singapore and Australia.

Smethurst said he feared HKU's international standing would continue to fall unless it extended its compulsory retirement age, like Singapore and Tokyo had done. He plans to move back to Britain next summer, where the universities - like those in Australia and the United States - do not impose a mandatory retirement age for professors.