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HKU Student Union and Alumni concern group hand over a petition letter to the Council Chairman Dr Leong Che-hung before the HKU Council meeting. Photo: Dickson Lee

Why the scuffle? Hong Kong University’s appointment controversy explained in 6 points

A council meeting at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) last night ended with students storming a room, and one person collapsing on the ground and being sent to hospital. What’s going on? If you haven’t been following, get up to speed here.

1. It’s about a job

The University of Hong Kong’s governing council decided to continue delaying the decision on whether or not a professor should become one of the university’s pro-vice-chancellors, part of the team that helps the vice-chancellor. The university started looking for someone to take the job in March 2014. One professor was supposed to get the job, but pro-Beijing newspapers criticised him and he still hasn’t been appointed yet.

Bonus Point:
The pro vice chancellor is the person who is one step below the deputy vice chancellor (or provost) in the university’s chain of command. There are five pro-vice-chancellors in the HKU structure. As of now, HKU has three pro vice chancellors who deal with research, teaching and learning, and how the university liaises with other groups like alumni, donors, and the rest of Hong Kong. The one position that Johannes Chan is recommended for is in charge of academic staffing and resources.

If for whatever reason, the University has no vice chancellor or deputy vice chancellor, then the pro-vice-chancellors call the shots. Like the vice chancellor and deputy vice chancellor, the pro vice chancellors serve on the university’s court, which can write or change statutes (laws) at the university; and senate, which is responsible for all academic matters and welfare of students. 

2. It’s about an important institution

That may sound like an internal squabble, but people care because of where and why it’s happening. The University of Hong Kong is the oldest tertiary institution in the city, and a place where academic freedom is taken seriously. Some people are afraid that this delayed appointment is because of politics. The professor who has been widely tipped for the pro-vice-chancellor position is former law dean Johannes Chan Man-mun.

3. Wait, it’s also about politics?

Earlier this year, the pro-Beijing newspaper Wen Wei Po ran a three-page spread on the results of a study about how the research at HKU was not ranked as highly as the research at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The paper went on to chastise Johannes Chan, saying: “Chan spends all his time on politics and neglects research. He has buried many talents.”

Chan’s colleagues are afraid that Chan isn’t getting the job because of his pro-democracy views and his close ties to fellow legal scholar Benny Tai Yiu-ting, co-founder of the Occupy Central group, which was part of the pro-democracy protests that blocked off major roads last September.

Tai was placed under scrutiny late last year over HK$1.45 million in Occupy donations that he passed to his employer, HKU. Last month, the school's governing council unexpectedly decided not to endorse an inquiry report that criticised the handling of the donations and instead opted to discuss it further.

4. And, hang on, academic freedom is also at issue?

Around 3,000 HKU alumni and members of the public signed a petition asking the school to “defend academic freedom, protect our city and our educational institutions”. The people who signed include former chief secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang, pan-democrat lawmaker Albert Ho Chun-yan, HKU law principal lecturer Eric Cheung Tat-ming, and veteran journalist and former mainland detainee Ching Cheong.

5. But who will be the 'decider' (in the words of former US President George W Bush)?

The people who really get to decide if Johannes Chan gets the job are the 22 people on the HKU Council, six of whom are appointed by Hong Kong’s chief executive as the chancellor of the university. Among those appointees is Professor Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, a former secretary for education and manpower, current member of Hong Kong’s Executive Council, and a somewhat controversial figure in recent years. Remember the HKU students who stormed the meeting? They ran in there to protest and to chant “Shame!” at Li.
Last September before the Occupy Central protests started, Li said Benny Tai’s behaviour was “crazy” and that the pro-democracy students should make a bigger sacrifice by giving up their education altogether. He also compared them to the Cultural Revolution’s Red Guards, groups of militant communist students who supported Chairman Mao Zedong, and persecuted and tortured supposed “class enemies”.
When HKU students confronted him last night and called him shameful, Li shot back defiantly: “Why are they upset? Have I committed a crime? Have I killed someone? Have I set someone on fire?”

Not someone to give up the analogy, Li described the students’ actions as “Hong Kong’s Cultural Revolution.”

Bonus point: The fact that Arthur Li is on the HKU council is itself a controversial issue, dating back from when the appointment was announced this March. 

Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying is the chancellor of all public universities here and thus gets to appoint people to the HKU council. While there may be a precedent in this practice in many former British colonies, some commentators have questioned the need to continue it. They are opposed to the chief executive having so much say over universities and their advisers in Hong Kong.

6. So, what’s next?

Even though, last month, the HKU Council voted 12-6 to postpone the appointment until they hire a new provost – the person who will be the boss of the pro-vice chancellor – because those two must get along, council chairman Dr Leong Che-hung now says he will suggest members discuss the pro-vice chancellor job – yes, Chan’s – in September. This is regardless of whether the supervising role of the provost is filled or not by August. Flip-flopping? Well, stay tuned for more.

And, now, Li may be in hot water. The official and most representative alumni body, the HKU Convocation, says it will vote on a motion of no confidence against Arthur Li when it meets on September 1. Expect more fireworks.

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