Private institute is one up against Lingnan: survey
Shue Yan, city's first self-financed university, is more popular than a government-funded one
The performance of the city's first private university has surpassed that of a government-funded one for the first time in 16 years, the latest university popularity ranking has revealed.
The survey, conducted by the University of Hong Kong's independent public opinion programme between May and June, showed that public universities' performances had dropped, though Hongkongers have traditionally preferred them over ones offering self-financed courses.
In the poll, the private Shue Yan University is ranked eighth, one place above government-funded Lingnan University. Shue Yan had gone up one place while Lingnan had fallen one place from last year's poll.
This is the first time since the survey began 16 years ago that the private institute has been ranked higher than a government-funded one.
The finding has prompted a researcher to urge the government to adopt a more balanced resource allocation policy.
More than 1,200 adults living in Hong Kong were interviewed over the phone for the survey.
They were asked to rate the city's nine public higher education institutions and Shue Yan, which is Hong Kong's first and only private university. Their ratings were based on the institutes' reputations, facilities, staff and student quality, and degree programme variety, among others.
Shi said although Lingnan's academic research and staff quality were still viewed as better than Shue Yan's, its public image had been heavily damaged by a scandal last year in which it enrolled more students than it could take in. It had offered 5,800 places to 8,000 students.
On the other hand, the death of Shue Yan's highly respected co-founder Dr Chung Chi-yung in March could have raised public awareness, she said.
Meanwhile, the top three universities in the poll - the University of Hong Kong, Chinese University and the University of Science and Technology, respectively - may have kept their places, but their ratings had dropped up to 0.26 points on a scale from zero to 10, Shi said.
She said the government, which tended to allocate more resources to public universities, should review its policy to make it more balanced.
