I REFER to the editorial 'No room for dithering' (South China Morning Post, November 1). Yes, there are differences in the conditions of appointment at this university, as in all the other tertiary institutions. Like the many other employers in Hong Kong who have offered differential terms of service in the past, we recognise that such differences are invidious, and, we are working to remove them, within the constraints laid upon us by the Government that university benefits should not be better than those of civil servants of comparable status. To imply that we are doing nothing is both inaccurate and unjustified. In fact, there are many ethnic Chinese academics who have established themselves overseas and who have joined the University of Hong Kong on expatriate terms. There are also some staff who are not, by any standard, ethnically Chinese who are on 'local' terms. The differences are based not on race but on home country. The criteria for deciding an employee's home country are those used in the Civil Service. Finally, I must make it clear that for this university equalisation does not mean localisation. We believe that we have a duty to the people of Hong Kong to provide the best possible education, and for this purpose we employ, and intend to go on employing, the best possible teachers we can find. And we intend to go on offering conditions of employment that will attract them. WANG GUNGWU Vice-Chancellor University of Hong Kong
