Education chief Arthur Li Kwok-cheung has refused to comment on a controversial survey on university rankings which has been criticised by academics.
Legislator Ng Leung-sing asked at the Legco meeting on Wednesday whether the University Grants Committee had assessed whether the research used in the study by the Education18.com website and the University of Hong Kong's Public Opinion Programme, was scientific and objective, as well as fair and reasonable to the universities, and also whether action had been taken 'to remove misconceptions'.
The University of Hong Kong came out top of the survey, released in April, followed by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, on the basis of factors that included admission grades, research record and graduates' performance.
HKU conducted an opinion poll of 1,513 people to gauge their perceptions of various institutions, which contributed 25 per cent of the weightings that determined the final rankings.
Lingnan University was ranked bottom, below the Hong Kong Institute of Education.
Professor Li told legislators that neither the administration nor the UGC could comment on the survey.