If any area of the globe seems well positioned to serve as the site of top quality institutions of higher education, it would be Hong Kong. As one of the world’s largest and most economically developed cities, Hong Kong possesses both the human capital and other amenities that allow such universities to flourish. One characteristic of Hong Kong however has been of concern to some with regard to the development of its system of higher education, that being a tendency on the part of the government to more tightly regulate the goings on at those universities which now exist than might be the case in nations with a more open and democratic form of government.
Governmental pressure over the universities of Hong Kong is a relatively new development. While originally constituted as a British colony, the higher education system of Hong Kong seems to historically have been fairly loosely controlled by the state. This all began to change however when Hong Kong’s status as a British territory ended in 1997, and it was returned to China. The Chinese government did not take direct control of Hong Kong following the territory’s return to Chinese control, with a system of government put in place that afforded the city’s residents a measure of representation. According to Michael H. Lee however, this did not prevent actions from being taken that were designed to fundamentally curtail the free exchange of ideas on the city’s university campuses.
In an article entitled “Hong Kong Higher Education in the 21st Century,” Lee documented several incidents of governmental interference in the operation of institutions of higher education in Hong Kong in the years following the city’s reunification with the People’s Republic of China in 1997. [i] One notable incident involved pressure being exerted upon Hong Kong University by an aid to the city’s Chief Executive, Tung Chee-Hwa after one of its researchers conducted an opinion poll that showed not all within the city had a favorable opinion of the government. [ii] The message the chief executive’s aid conveyed, that the government wished to gain the promise of the university to conduct no further polling that could show less than favorable opinions of the new government, clearly illustrated an attempt to infringe upon the principle of academic freedom as it is generally understood in liberal democracies, that being the ability of a university to conduct research free from ideological interference.
This incident in Hong Kong is hardly the only incident in which a university in one or another part of the world has experienced pressure to take or reframe from taking action that displeases one or another powerful constituencies, especially a sitting government. Given the increasingly global nature of higher education however, the question ought to be asked whether concerted action should be taken to defend academic freedom in the face of such examples of governmental interference in university operations, in order to forcefully make the point that such governmental interference is unacceptable. Lee notes that as the twenty-first century progresses, Hong Kong is attempting to capitalize upon its geographic and economic position to both expand the public and private higher educational offerings which are present in the city, while at the same time it seeks to attract branch campuses of foreign educational institutions. [iii] While it is impossible for foreign educational institutions to directly impact the actions of the government of Hong Kong or the government of any state for that matter, such institutions could withdraw branch campuses or other sources of funding from states which choose not to respect the principles of academic freedom. Such actions would clearly illustrate that academic freedom was a concept which is respected above all others by established institutions of higher education, and one which must be respected by governments, regardless of their ideology. Whether action such as that proposed here could actually be taken however would depend on whether institutions of higher education collectively were prepared to join together to take such a stand, and absorb any criticism directed their way as a result of doing so.
[i] Lee, Michael H. Hong Kong Higher Education in the 21st Century, Department of History, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, http://edb.org.hk/HKTC/download/journal/j13/A02.pdf
[ii] Ibd
[iii] Ibd