The newly appointed director of the Academy of Performing Arts (APA) has denied reports that he was suspended from his current job in Australia.
Adrian Walter, head of the school of music at the Australian National University (ANU), told the South China Morning Post he visited Hong Kong last week to meet his future colleagues and students using annual leave and had already returned to work at the school in Canberra.
'I was not suspended,' Walter said via e-mail, after media reports in Australia suggested that he had been 'instructed' to take leave from Thursday last week because of the controversy and protests surrounding a restructuring of the music school, which could lead to massive job cuts.
The reports said Walter kept the plan from staff until it was announced on May 3. The university said that it had allowed Walter leave because he was 'under a very considerable quantity of pressure'.
The announcement that Walter was moving to Hong Kong came on Friday, while he was on leave, and shocked music school staff, who had condemned the restructuring plan.
'I had annual leave approved for May 10 and May 11 [Thursday and Friday] when I was invited to come to Hong Kong,' he said.