Hong Kong : governance and the double-edged academy

Abstract

This chapter introduces selected preferences and perceptions of Hong Kong’s academic profession about university governance. We identify a double-edged feature of university governance in Hong Kong. On the one hand, there is an increasingly top-down pattern of management. This is reflected in the perceptions of academic staff about their low level of involvement in policy making, relative lack of information about institutional workings, and insufficient quality of communication between administration and faculty. On the other hand, academic staff perceptions also point to a significant level of satisfaction and preference for the performance-oriented decision-making that is practiced at universities in Hong Kong. Moreover, their perceptions of the level of academic freedom in Hong Kong’s universities have actually increased over time.