Update | HKU student leader refuses to rule out more protests over delay in appointment of liberal scholar to key role

The University of Hong Kong’s student leader today said his union would not rule out storming the HKU council meeting again, if that was what it took “to block decisions that hurt the institution”.

The warning from HKU student union president Billy Fung Jing-en came a day after HKU vice-chancellor Peter Mathieson reprimanded students for forcing their way in to a meeting of the university’s governing body on Tuesday night.

Just before the meeting descended into chaos, the university’s councillors voted down a motion to stop delaying the appointment of a pro-vice-chancellor.

At the centre of the controversy was the university’s former law dean Johannes Chan Man-mun, who was widely tipped to be the only candidate for the pro-vice-chancellor job.

But since his candidacy was revealed, pro-Beijing newspapers have criticised him for his working relationship with HKU law academic Benny Tai Yiu-ting, who co-founded the Occupy Central campaign.

Public opinion is divided over whether the students did the right thing.

Speaking on a RTHK programme this morning, Fung was asked whether he would apologise to the public for the chaos on Tuesday, when he said: “I regret that our action did not achieve [what we hoped], but we will continue to do this … I will discuss the details of our next steps with students, but personally I hope to stop [councillors] from making decisions that would hurt the university.”