Hong Kong university professors form vigilance team to keep eye on academic freedom
New vigilance group is tasked with keeping an eye on possible interference, as organisers plan silent march to 'demonstrate resolve of staff'
University of Hong Kong professors leading a silent march today to defend institutional autonomy plan to set up a "vigilance group" to monitor academic freedom.
The new group is part of the march organisers' follow-up actions after HKU's governing council voted last week to reject Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun's candidacy for a key managerial post amid a public outcry.
Professor Timothy O'Leary, one of the four organisers, said the rally was not just to support the liberal legal scholar but also to demonstrate staff members' resolve to protect the core value of academic freedom.
"There is now a culture of fear, especially among junior teaching and research staff," he said on the eve of the on-campus protest.
The new vigilance group would support colleagues who might come under pressure or interference over their academic work, O'Leary added.
Staff members, pan-democrats and Chan's supporters see the council's decision denying him the pro-vice-chancellorship as a political move to punish him for his pro-democracy background and close ties to an Occupy Central founder.
Come support HKU staff and students and defend academic freedom in Hong Kong this Tuesday! Wear black! Bring a black umbrella in case it rains!「衛我港大自主，師生黑衣遊行」本星期二(十月六日)中午12:45 港大師生穿黑衣抗議！請廣傳！如果下雨請帶黑傘。
Posted by 6octhkuinblack on Friday, 2 October 2015
The march today will start around noon. All staff and students have been invited to wear black clothes or academic gowns and to walk from the new centennial campus to Sun Yat-sen Place on the main campus.
O'Leary could not estimate the number of participants, but said the university had not expressed objection to the rally.
Through the march, the organisers hoped to press HKU into reviewing its governance structure, with their primary demand being that the chief executive should no longer be the chancellor of all public universities.
The university commissioned what was known as a Niland report in 2009 to review governance and agreed a review should be conducted every five years. O'Leary said a review was now due.
Meanwhile, former chief editor Kevin Lau Chun-to wrote yesterday, and the confirmed with a source, that former chief justice Andrew Li Kwok-nang was a referee backing Chan in his attempt for the pro-vice-chancellor post. The other two referees were professors Hazel Genn, dean of laws at University College London, and Sarah Worthington of the University of Cambridge.
Li's secretary said Li did not wish to comment on the matter.
Dr Li Hui, an associate professor at HKU's education faculty, said Chan's strong ties with pan-democratic parties would affect his personnel management.
Li also questioned Chan's academic achievements, saying the former law dean's "impact factor", an indicator of the average number of citations of articles published in academic journals, was just 0.0038.
He earlier said his own impact factor was 200 times Chan's.
