Have Hong Kong universities suffered decline in reputation and quality after protests?
- Global rankings involved surveys conducted during, after violent campus protests last year
- Ratings for research, teaching and employability of graduates decline for several city universities
Hong Kong universities appear to have fared well overall in international rankings by two British-based firms this year, but a closer look reveals declines in their global reputation and perceived employability of their graduates.
Some experts and academics said the reasons could include the impact of last year’s anti-government protests, which saw demonstrators occupying several Hong Kong university campuses with some of the most violent clashes between radicals and the police taking place at Chinese and Polytechnic universities.
A Post analysis of six league tables published between June and November this year by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) and Times Higher Education (THE) found that the universities’ scores in global reputation, in particular, suffered.
“It is inevitable that global impressions of Hong Kong took a hit when the data of these surveys were collected during or after the period when the city’s most chaotic scenes were shown in the international media,” said Lingnan University vice-president Professor Joshua Mok Ka-ho.
If universities no longer viewed teaching and learning as their core mission, and instead started to aim solely at improving their rankings, that would not be quality education
Overall, six out of seven Hong Kong universities climbed up the QS World University Rankings 2021 that compared 1,000 institutions and was released in June. The top-ranked University of Hong Kong (HKU) rose three places to 22nd spot, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) came next, in 27th place.
