The Changing Academic Professional and the Future of Academic Freedom in Hong Kong

• In Event: 18.014 - The Future of Academic Freedom: Identifying Global Threats and Defining Universal Values

Abstract

Despite spending 0.7% of GDP on research and development (R&D), much lower than South Korea, Singapore or Taiwan, Hong Kong has more world ranked universities than any other world city. Much of Hong Kong’s success has been due to confidence in the autonomy of universities, an openness to new ideas, and a lack of deference on the part of academics, scholars and scientists to anything except the truth as the first value of universities. Shared governance has been upheld as a fundamental tenet of academic life. In 2015, the government commissioned Sir Howard Newby to review the governance of all its universities. In 2017, the leading university commissioned academics from Harvard and London, as well as a local judge, to address government interference in university governance, including the role of the chief executive in council appointments. Moreover, China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has the most free and autonomous academic atmosphere in Asia. For example, no one has ever been fired for academic views or actions as a public intellectual. University presidents have generally upheld academic freedom and institutional autonomy. Digital and print resources are completely open to academics and students, and there are no travel restrictions on scholars.
The future of Hong Kong higher education will hinge upon whether it can sustain the values and practices that have made Hong Kong a leading city for universities. This research will present data on the changing perspectives of the academic profession about institutional governance and academic freedom. The data come from three surveys. In 1993, Hong Kong took part in the first international survey of the academic profession conducted by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In 2007, Hong Kong participated in the second international survey of the academic profession with an international consortium of countries. In 2017, Hong Kong participated in the third international survey of the academic profession along with twenty countries. The paper will identify, discuss, and analyze the perspectives of Hong Kong academics toward institutional governance and academic freedom through the prisms of gender, citizenship, highest degree, and academic specialization. The paper will also discuss how external changes in the Chinese mainland and in other parts of the world may affect the future of Hong Kong’s academy.

Author

• Gerard Postiglione, The University of Hong Kong