HKU could get first expat vice-chancellor in more than a decade
Peter Mathieson earned praise from committee selecting new vice-chancellor and would be first expatriate to get job in over a decade
The University of Hong Kong may soon have its first expatriate vice-chancellor in a decade.
Professor Peter William Mathieson - currently dean of medicine and dentistry at the University of Bristol - has been recommended by an 11-member selection committee to succeed Professor Tsui Lap-chee.
Mathieson told the Post that he was honoured and excited to be a candidate for the post.
"If I am appointed, I will do my utmost, together with the university community, to take the university to new heights," he said.
Tsui quit as head of the city's oldest university amid controversy over heavy-handed security arrangements during the visit of then Vice-Premier Li Keqiang in August 2011 that overshadowed the university's centenary celebrations.
If approved by the university council Mathieson, 54, would become the university's 15th vice-chancellor and the first non-Chinese since Professor William Ian Rees Davies, who headed the 102-year-old institution from 2000 to 2002.
Mathieson has been active in teaching and medical research with his main clinical interest lying in autoimmune renal diseases.