Former judge finds no evidence of political interference from chief executive in HKU governance: source

Review panel member proposes university adopt CUHK council model

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HKU Council members decided not to make the report’s recommendation public. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 9:32am, 2 Mar 2017Updated: 12:32am, 3 Mar 2017

There was “no evidence whatsoever” of the city’s leader politically interfering with the governance of the University of Hong Kong, a former High Court judge wrote in a report to the institution’s council.

A source familiar with the report said former High Court judge PeterNguyen was opposed to stripping the chief executiveof his power to appoint the head and some members of HKU’s governing council, as drastic changes would have a ripple effect on other universities. The chief executive is by default the chancellor of the city’s government-funded universities.

The HKU council decided on Tuesday not to make public the report of a three-member independent panel tasked with reviewing how the university should be run as there was no consensus on whether there should be changes in the governance structure. Instead, the council established a six-member working group to look into the recommendations.

The source said Nguyen’s views clashed with the proposals of the other two panel members.

Former High Court judge Peter Van-tu Nguyen was opposed to making the chief executive’s role in the university honorary, according to a source. Photo: Handout

The two – Professor Malcolm Grant, chancellor of the University of York, and Professor William Kirby, T.M. Chang professor of China studies at Harvard University – endorsed the idea that the chief executive’s role in the university should be made honorary.