No place for ethnic profiling of academics, whether in Hong Kong or US universities
- Talk of a ‘mainlandisation’ of academics in Hong Kong is baseless and only hurts the intellectual vitality and dedication of the research enterprise
- Recent developments in the US should serve as a warning: government overreach can damage academic careers and the functioning of universities
The simple reason is that academic appointments in Hong Kong are based on performance, and not ethnicity, nationality, gender or religion. Anyone who has served on a search and recruitment committee would confirm it, as I can. This is also backed up by data from an international study of the academic profession in 20 university systems, in which more Hong Kong academics agreed – more than those from other systems – that appointments and resources were made depending on performance.
The University of Hong Kong – the city’s premier higher education establishment – is ranked year after year as the most international university in the world, which some contend is because non-local academics from the Chinese mainland count as international. In fact, the vast majority of them earned their doctorates overseas. That adds to the kind of diversity that universities in Hong Kong are known for in their staffing profiles.
My corridor of nine offices had notable academic staff with overseas degrees who were natives of Canada, Portugal, South Korea, Ukraine, India, Georgia, Hong Kong and the mainland, and there were other faculty colleagues from Finland, Honduras, Britain and the United States.
This is not to deny that technology theft has occurred in some instances, but it shows how government overreach can damage academic careers and the functioning of universities. Before the atmosphere turned toxic in 2018, more than 10 per cent of US inventions were made by scientists of ethnic Chinese origin, according to research by a senior associate dean at Harvard University. Government actions, in whatever country or jurisdiction, can at times thwart the academic research enterprise from doing innovative teaching and research.
Profiling scholars and scientists impairs the intellectual vitality and dedication of the academic research enterprise. University work carries a solemn responsibility to establish and confirm truth by way of the scientific method and, when necessary, to speak truth to power. This means prioritising professionalism over nationalism.
There is a choice for leading research universities in Hong Kong, on the mainland and overseas to either distinguish themselves as instruments of strategic competition within a toxic atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust, or as institutions for international peace and human progress based on an international convergence of mutual academic and professional interests for the global common good.
Profiling based on ethnicity or nationality can create a self-fulfilling prophecy as professors become viewed first as locals, mainlanders or other nationals, rather than as professionals based on their academic and research discoveries, innovations and research accomplishments.
The best universities adhere to the highest values of the academy, values that the Hong Kong model of higher education has long fought to maintain. The merit of science-based research findings should not depend on the identity of the scientist. The warping of scientific findings by authoritarian systems during those dreadful parts of the 20th century should warn us not to fall prey to an identity politics of science in the metaverse of the 21st century.
As the world faces existential challenges, there is a danger of myths abounding about the sacred nature of any one model of higher education. Cross-border university communities operate best on the basis of respect and understanding. It ensures productive collaboration in an environment of academic freedom to address problems like climate change, pandemics, food insecurity, poverty and inequality, and other, unforeseen, challenges. That leaves no time for ethnic or national profiling in or outside academia.
Gerard Postiglione is an honorary professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong