Governance and Reform Record — The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Editorial note: This page records governance-level disputes at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST, "the University") that can be verified from 1991, when the University was founded, to the present. Compared with older institutions such as HKU, HKUST has fewer historical movements, and this page records "not found" items as such rather than filling gaps with unsourced material. Student events related to 2019 fall outside the scope of this page; see modules 14 / 18.

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# 1. Overview of the governance structure

According to HKUST's official governance page, the University operates a three-tier governance structure: the Court, the Council, and the Senate. Under the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Ordinance, the Council is the University's supreme governing body, bearing ultimate responsibility for its finances, personnel, and strategy; the Senate is the highest academic authority; the Court holds an oversight and advisory role.

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# 2. Verifiable matters during past presidents' terms

# 2.1 Appointment of the Council Chairman (2015)

According to a Government press release^※, on 6 March 2015 the Chief Executive appointed a person as Chairman of the HKUST Council for a three-year term, effective immediately through 5 March 2018. The release stated that the previous chairman had died in September 2014, and that an acting chairman had held the role until this formal appointment.

Note: This appointment was an exercise of the Chief Executive's statutory appointment power, and the procedure was consistent with that used for other Hong Kong universities. This search did not find any publicly reported objection corroborated by reliable media. Not found: reliable news sources reporting external objection or controversy.

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# 2.2 The fourth president's term and early departure (2018–2022)

According to an HKUST official announcement (9 November 2021)^※, the then-president announced on 9 November 2021^※ that he would step down on 19 October 2022, roughly eleven months^※ before his five-year term was due to end in September 2023. The University's official reason given was that the then-president wished "to hand over after witnessing the formal opening of the Guangzhou campus."

On the National Security Law statement

According to reporting by multiple outlets^※, in 2020 the presidents of several Hong Kong universities jointly issued a statement expressing "understanding" of the National Security Law. The then-president was among the few university leaders who explicitly stated at the time that there was no need to voice personal support for the legislation; his stated public position was to comply with the law, but that there was "no need to proactively support it." Around the same period, the then-president reportedly wrote to the University community stating that HKUST would "uphold academic freedom," describing this as a basic principle guaranteed by the Basic Law.

Different accounts

According to HKUST's official statement, the then-president's departure was a normal leadership transition; the University acknowledged his achievements during his tenure, including the establishment of the Guangzhou campus and improvements in research standing, and would launch a global search for a successor.

According to multiple outlets (SCMP, HKFP, The Standard) citing the views of observers, the timing of the departure announcement — made more than a year before his term was due to end, and close to the anniversary of the 2019 events — drew attention from some in academia, who raised the question of "whether external pressure was involved." However, no reliable source has provided direct evidence as to the cause of any such pressure.

The matter remains unresolved. Whether the early departure was purely a personal decision or related to the political environment has not been officially explained in any source found in this search.

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# 2.3 The fifth president's dual role

According to an HKUST official announcement (May 2022)^※, the current president formally took office as HKUST's fifth president on 19 October 2022, and is also the first female president of a publicly funded university in Hong Kong.

According to The Standard (December 2022)^※ and Wikipedia^※, the current president has also served, since December 2022, as a Hong Kong delegate to the National People's Congress, and received the most votes of any candidate in that round of Hong Kong NPC-delegate elections.

Note: The current president's NPC role is a matter of public record, documented by herself and by official media. This search did not find any Hong Kong media coverage reporting controversy over holding this role concurrently. Not found: publicly reported objections to this dual role.

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# 3. Pressures on academic freedom (post-2020)

# 3.1 Departures in the Division of Social Science (summer 2021)

According to a first-person account written by an HKUST Division of Social Science professor (Holz, October 2021)^※, in the summer of 2021, two colleagues in the Division of Social Science, within the School of Humanities and Social Science, left the University in succession after being attacked.

According to the same document and a follow-up document dated January 2022^※, both first-person accounts state that the pro-Beijing newspapers Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Po published articles around June 2021 using language referring to "US funding" and "inciting student participation in demonstrations," targeting a colleague's published research on student participation in demonstrations; the account states that the individual's related project approval was subsequently withdrawn without explanation, and remaining ties to the University were quickly severed. Other members of the same division reportedly left in the period that followed.

⚠ Single-source caveat: The primary source for the account above is the author himself (a party to and witness of the events), and is categorized as a first-person account. The Diplomat article cites the same chain of information, so its independence is limited. The University has not made any public response to the above account in the sources found by this search. It cannot be confirmed what specific position, if any, University administration took regarding the newspaper articles in question.

This item is marked single-source (the primary first-hand testimony comes from one party to the events; a second, independent chain of evidence is still lacking).

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# 3.2 The broader wave of departures from Hong Kong

According to an Ithaka S+R report^※ and Science magazine reporting^※, the 2022–2023 academic year saw the highest number of academic staff departures since the handover, with roughly 380 departures across Hong Kong universities combined. The report attributes this to changes in the academic environment following implementation of the National Security Law in 2020. This wave of departures was not specific to HKUST and spanned multiple Hong Kong institutions.

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# 4. Governance structure and academic concerns regarding the Guangzhou campus

# 4.1 The dual-campus framework

According to the official HKUST(GZ) governance page^※, HKUST Guangzhou formally opened on 1 September 2022, positioned as a joint project between HKUST, Guangzhou University, and the Guangzhou municipal government. The two campuses operate under a "One HKUST, Two Complementary Campuses" framework, with a joint academic committee, but remain legally and financially independent of each other, without cross-subsidy.

# 4.2 Scholarly concerns

According to an Ithaka S+R analysis^※, scholars have expressed concern about the feasibility of maintaining a single academic identity across Hong Kong's comparatively open legal environment and mainland China's more restricted information governance environment, and about how AI research, data sharing, and international collaboration in sensitive fields would be affected. The report also questions whether the University's publicly stated "spirit of open inquiry" adequately reflects the practical constraints that arise from operating two administrative systems side by side.

Note: The concerns above come from independent think-tank academic analysis, not from any official HKUST source or any verified record of internal dispute. Not found: reliably sourced reporting of internal governance conflict between the two campuses.

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# 5. Curriculum reform: from three-year to four-year (the 334 reform)

The most far-reaching, yet least contested, "reform" in HKUST's history was a system-wide curriculum reform implemented across all of Hong Kong, rather than a power struggle.

# 5.1 Background to the reform

According to the Wikipedia entry on the "334 Scheme"^※, from the 2009 school year, Hong Kong implemented the "3-3-4 New Academic Structure" — three years of junior secondary, three years of senior secondary, and four years of university — replacing the old Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination with the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE). Previously, Hong Kong undergraduate degrees followed the British three-year model; the new system extended undergraduate degrees from three years to four. This reform structurally affected all eight UGC-funded universities, including HKUST: curriculum frameworks, admissions systems, and resource allocation all had to be restructured.

# 5.2 HKUST's response and the "double cohort"

According to the HKUST official news page^※, 2012 was the transition year between the old and new systems: the final cohort of A-Level candidates and the first cohort of HKDSE candidates enrolled in the same year, forming the so-called "double cohort" situation, which required substantial institutional planning and resource coordination.

HKUST used this reform as an opportunity to introduce two further institutional changes:

• School-based admission: According to the same official page^※, from 2012 HKUST moved to admitting students by its four schools (Science, Engineering, Business, and Humanities and Social Science); students first take school-wide foundation courses and the "University Common Core," with deferred declaration of majors once they have a better understanding of the different programs.
• University Common Core: Covering five areas — arts and humanities, social analysis, science and technology, quantitative reasoning, and Chinese/English language communication — supported by enhanced academic advising and a mentorship system.

Note: This section is a neutral institutional-history account based on official and authoritative sources. The 334 reform was a uniform policy applied across Hong Kong, not specific to HKUST; HKUST's own adjustments within it (school-based admission, deferred major declaration) are supported by official records. Among the "reform" items covered here, this one is the least contested and best evidenced, and can be read as settled history.

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# 6. The eight-university governance framework: balancing institutional autonomy and public accountability (the Newby Report and the Accountability Agreements)

As a UGC-funded university, HKUST's governance must be understood within the "institutional autonomy vs. public accountability" framework shared by Hong Kong's eight publicly funded universities. The contemporary version of this framework rests on two official documents.

# 6.1 The Newby Report (2015) and the UGC governance report (2016)

According to a Government press release (30 March 2016)^※ and the UGC report page^※, in December 2013 the Education Bureau commissioned Sir Howard Newby, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool, to lead a study of university governance; the resulting report was endorsed by the UGC in September 2015 and formally published on 30 March 2016 under the title "Governance in UGC-funded Higher Education Institutions in Hong Kong."

According to the official sources above, the report established the core principle that "the core values of institutional autonomy and academic freedom must be balanced with public accountability, underpinned and safeguarded by effective governance." The report proposed internationally recognized good practices for improving the effectiveness and transparency of university Councils, taken forward by a working group led by Sir Howard Newby after consulting all eight universities.

# 6.2 The University Accountability Agreements (2019)

According to a UGC announcement (27 June 2019)^※, the UGC published the "University Accountability Agreements (UAA)" on 27 June 2019 as an implementation tool for the recommendations of the governance report above, following roughly three years (2016–2019) of consultation. The UAA set five performance areas for all eight universities: quality of teaching and learning, research performance and postgraduate experience, knowledge transfer and community engagement, internationalization, and financial health and sustainability. According to the announcement, the accountability indicators are intended to serve, "under the principle of institutional autonomy," as a tool for the UGC to assess each university's performance against its own stated goals, and were incorporated into funding planning for the 2019–22 triennium.

# 6.3 Significance for HKUST

Note: The Newby Report, the UGC governance report, and the UAA are all framework instruments common to all eight universities, not specific to any particular dispute at HKUST. This search did not find reliably sourced evidence of a specific governance conflict at HKUST within this framework (contrast HKU's 2015 Council dispute). This section is included to give institutional context for HKUST's governance — the tension between "autonomy" and "accountability" is a structural issue shared by all eight universities, not one specific to HKUST. Not found: a verified individual governance dispute at HKUST under the Newby / UAA framework.

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# 7. Items checked and found not applicable / not found

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