Albert Chan, retiring president of Hong Kong Baptist University, gives his own tenure a passing grade

Baptist University president Professor Albert Chan Sun-chi yesterday gave himself a passing grade at the end of his tenure, as he recounted his setbacks over the past five years, including the negotiation with the government over a vacant Kowloon Tong site for the university's development.

The 64-year-old scientist, who is retiring today, gave his performance a score of 60 marks out of 100. He deducted 30 because of the contentious public fight with the government in 2013 over the vacant former Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education site next to the university's campus.

The university wanted to build a Chinese medicine teaching hospital and residence halls on the site, which was zoned for educational use. The government planned to rezone the southern half of the site for flats.

As students protested against the government's plan, the university backed them and Chan threatened to resign if the government plan went ahead.

"If I were good friends with the officials, I could have just given them phone calls. Then everything would have been faster," Chan said.

"We did not need to exchange our view in newspapers and on radio programmes."

The government eventually abandoned its rezoning plan, but it wasn't a complete victory for the university. The northern half remains set aside for the university's development and the Education Bureau is looking into using the southern half for special-needs education. Chan said the university was still looking for a site for the teaching hospital.