PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 13 October, 2015, 2:30pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 13 October, 2015, 5:28pm
Postgraduate students at the University of Hong Kong will vote next Monday to pick their representative in the institution’s governing council. Photo: Reuters
University of Hong Kong students are organising a forum to get to know two candidates competing for a hot seat on the governing council that has been embroiled in a political storm.
So far, neither mainlander Zhu Ke nor local student Anabelle Mak Wing-man has confirmed attending the event, slated for this week, to explain their positions in seeking council membership.
Zhu (below, left) told the South China Morning Postthis morning he had not been in contact with Beijing’s liaison office in town, which is known to maintain regular contact with some mainland students, nor had he taken part in its activities before.
“I’m only a simple student. I don’t belong to any political party,” Zhu said, but added he took part in a protest march by staff and students last week that was triggered by the HKU council’s rejection of a liberal professor’s candidacy for a key managerial post without detailed explanation.
The vacated council seat, representing postgraduate students, is considered significant after the majority of HKU council members voted down Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun’s candidacy for pro-vice-chancellorship, a move seen by some as politically motivated.
The vacated council seat, representing postgraduate students, is considered significant after the majority of HKU council members voted down Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun’s candidacy for pro-vice-chancellorship, a move seen by some as politically motivated.As an election for the seat next Monday continued to put the council in the spotlight, a concern group formed by law students invited Zhu and Mak to attend its consultation forum after neither indicated they would organise one themselves to take questions from their postgraduate voters.
“The HKU council is in the centre of a political storm right now,” the concern group said. “Council members are in a crucial position in monitoring the operation of the university and defending its autonomy and academic freedom.”
The group urged both candidates to attend the forum, which would be “the only chance” for voters to get in touch with them.
In Zhu’s platform sent to students, the engineering student vows to “defend HKU autonomy” and “maintain academic freedom”.
On the council’s decision late last month to exercise its power in rejecting Chan, Zhu writes that he will “request starting a new round of recruitment … with the least delay”.
Zhu told the Post today he had not decided whether to attend the forum because of a schedule clash, but added it would also depend whether the other candidate would show up.
Asked if he agreed there was political interference in HKU, Zhu said: “Only the council members know. I don’t know what happened inside … But it’s true the council has some problems.”
He said he would propose a review of the council’s operation, including raising the proportion of staff and student representatives, and a review of confidentiality rules that prevented an open explanation of its controversial decision.
Out of the council’s 22 members, two are student delegates, six are staff members and the rest are external members, six of whom appointed by the Hong Kong chief executive.
Meanwhile, a three-page self-introduction of Mak (above, right) makes no mention of the university’s governance.
Mak, a linguistics postgraduate student who also works as an English tutor at a private school, told thePost last week that she “did not have enough information” to form a view about Chan’s saga because media reports were “superficial”.
She disagreed with students’ union president Billy Fung Jing-en’s disclosure of the council’s closed-door discussions that resulted in rejecting Chan’s appointment, “because rules should be followed in a society based on the rule of law”. http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1866885/hong-kong-university-forum-turns-spotlight-two
