Rowdy student events at Hong Kong universities led to 87 people being penalised or criminally charged over past decade

Authorities share figure after lawmakers called for Legislative Council panel meeting in response to indecent assault case at University of Hong Kong last year

HKUST accounted for 40 cases, 13 involved CUHK and 10 linked to PolyU

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The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology campus. Nearly half of all cases involving students being penalised or charged in the past decade were linked to events at the institution. Photo: May Tse

Published: 9:30am, 3 Jan 2024Updated: 4:56pm, 3 Jan 2024

Eighty-seven people faced criminal charges or were penalised for breaching campus rules at student-led events over the past decade, with nearly half of the cases occurring at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).

The Education Bureau shared the figure in a report on Tuesday after lawmakers called for a Legislative Council panel meeting in response to the arrest of a 20-year-old University of Hong Kong (HKU) student on suspicion of indecently assaulting an 18-year-old woman during a three-day orientation event last August.

A breakdown of the cases, which date as far back as the 2013-14 academic year, showed 40 were related to HKUST, 13 involved the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and Polytechnic University (PolyU) accounted for another 10.

“The [40] cases mainly involved serving alcohol, using inappropriate language, unauthorised use of commercial logos on promotional materials or clothing and causing noise nuisance during student events,” HKUST had told the bureau.

Polytechnic University logged 10 cases of people being charged or penalised over incidents at student-organised events. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Other universities said their cases involved offering alcoholic drinks, using offensive or foul language, creating noise-related nuisances or unwelcome physical contact.