Hong Kong's universities may have risen in the esteem around the world, but local academics believe this hard-won status is being challenged by a growing threat to academic freedom.
Their fears were spelled out forcefully at a meeting of the Legislative Council's educational panel on March 12, when more than 30 rights activists, university staff and students told lawmakers of what they saw as mounting pressure for curbs on one of the city's most hallowed rights.
The speakers included the director of the University of Hong Kong's Public Opinion Programme, Dr Robert Chung Ting-yiu, whose centre has been conducting politically sensitive polls for more than a decade and who for the past three months has been criticised in 87 articles, letters and columns, in the pro-Beijing press.
One of the more notable of these attacks was from Hao Tiechuan, director general of the department of publicity, culture and sports of the central government's liaison office in Hong Kong. Hao lambasted as 'illogical' a poll by Chung last December which found that the percentage of Hongkongers who identified themselves primarily as 'Chinese citizens' was at a 12-year low.
Other speakers at the Legco hearing shared Chung's worry that the core value enshrined in Article 137 of the Basic Law, which states that 'educational institutions of all kinds may retain their autonomy and enjoy academic freedom', was at risk following a spate of controversies.
Among the most prominent of these incidents was the row over University of Hong Kong's heavy-handed security arrangements for a visit by Vice-Premier Li Keqiang to mark HKU's centenary celebrations last August. Li was given the most prominent seat at the ceremony, triggering allegations from staff and students that the university was trying to ingratiate itself with the rich and the powerful.
