Hong Kong University set to launch third global search to fill No 2 management position
- Latest effort to find provost and deputy vice chancellor comes after resignation of Paul Tam, who held post on interim basis
Hong Kong’s oldest university will conduct a third global search as early as next month in a bid to fill its No 2 management post, the Post has learned, with the position vacant for more than 3½ years.
“Vice chancellor Zhang Xiang hopes to start a new search for provost as soon as possible,” a university source said. “It could begin within weeks.”
The university’s governing council will receive Tam’s resignation from the role on Tuesday and discuss whether to approve moderate pro-establishment scholar Richard Wong Yue-chim as his successor, also on an interim basis.
Tam, the school’s vice-president from 2003 to 2015, served as acting and later interim provost since July 2015, and is effectively in charge of university operations and major recruitment decisions.
A second attempt in July 2016 was unsuccessful after the search committee concluded candidates were not suitable. A planned third round never materialised after then vice chancellor Peter Mathieson quit in February 2017.
HKU staff and students demand answers over unfilled deputy role
The source said Tam had previously indicated more than once to Zhang that he wished to resign after the university pushed on with several unpopular policies under Tam’s leadership.
That included a more stringent contract renewal system under which academics aged over 60 were only granted shorter, non-tenured terms.
A “senior management team tax” was also pushed where the university’s leaders could dip into the financial reserves of individual faculties and departments for central reallocation.
Both moves were criticised for affecting staff morale. The latter especially disappointed some deans and department heads, as it affected planning and was viewed as unfair to more “moneymaking” faculties.
But Tam eventually stayed on while Zhang familiarised himself with university operations.
Both he and another senior university source dismissed suggestions Zhang and Tam were not on good terms.
The first source said former HKU vice-president for global affairs John Kao Weiyuan’s departure in early January was due to differences in direction, but that was not the case for Tam.
Education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen, convenor of the HKU Alumni Concern Group, would not speculate on why Zhang picked Wong, who is in his 60s, to succeed Tam, but urged the university to commence the search for provost.
Politics and power plays … outgoing HKU chief recalls dark days
“We can’t worry too much about whether we secure a candidate. From a governance point of view, the position of provost should be filled as soon as possible,” Ip said.
Zhang, who took up the university’s top post last July, is in the process of building his own management team, commonly dubbed the “cabinet”.
He will head the new search panel for a provost and later recommend shortlisted candidates to the council for approval.
Zhang is likely to review the duties of the vice-president for global affairs and vice-president for institutional advancement, left vacant after Douglas So Cheung-tak resigned in early 2017.
A source said both roles might be changed and it was likely that new vice-presidents might join the team.
