Separating self-financing arms from public universities will help, not hurt them, Hong Kong education task force says

A task force appointed by the Hong Kong government to review the private tertiary sector has dismissed concerns from the self-financing arms of publicly funded universities that their branding and appeal to students would be affected after they separated from their parent institutions.

The suggestion to detach the private extensions of these universities was among the 13 recommendations presented in the final report by the task force on review of self-financing post-secondary education established by the government last year to study the role of private tertiary institutions. These schools have about 60,000 sub-degree and undergraduate students in the city.

Submitting the report to the Education Bureau on Thursday, task force chairman Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung explained that having the private extensions regulated by an updated Post Secondary Colleges Ordinance instead of their parent university’s statutes would help them. They could, for example, benefit from support measures for institutions under the ordinance.

He added that the task force was aware of the schools’ concerns regarding linkage to the parent institutions and academic accreditation, which were reflected during a two-month public consultation launched at the end of June, and said these issues could be addressed flexibly.

“Ultimately, it should be for the university governance body, namely the council, to decide the details of the linkage, to the best interest of the university,” he said.