24 January 2018
Changes at the helm as HKU searches for its place in a changing Hong Kong, a changing China, and a changing world
Hong Kong University president Professor Peter Mathieson is going out with a bang, or rather, a cacophony of contending voices, charges and counter-charges.
Earlier this month, he openly sparred with Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, — his soon-to-be ex-boss and HKU Council chairman, known in the popular media as “King Arthur” — over the reasons for his early departure and his alleged contacts with Beijing’s representatives in Hong Kong. Mathieson also took issue with the university’s staff association for its scathing poll results on his performance, which made headlines in Hong Kong and in the UK.
Mathieson, who took office in April 2014, set off a major stir when he announced his resignation towards the end of the third year of a five-year term. He will start as the Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh on 1 February.
But as media headlines blast buzzwords such as “academic freedom” and “political interference,” the university is bustling with the daily business of teaching and learning. On a recent Sunday, more than 1,000 parents of this year’s freshman class packed HKU’s Grand Hall to listen to top professors explain how the university goes about teaching their kids. A few gasped when they were told that, unlike middle school days, parents will not receive grade reports from the university. Their children are now adults, whose privacy needs to be respected. An anxious parent wanted to know if HKU is offering courses on artificial intelligence. Another asked about the messy bulletin boards on campus. Politics seem to be the farthest from the minds of the proud and appreciative parents.
Mathieson’s truncated tenure is also much more nuanced than the media’s portrayal of it as one under constant siege. In an hour-long interview a month after he announced his resignation, Mathieson shared his thoughts on a range of issues, such as his relationship with Li , his faith in students, his campaign for gender balance at the university and the inevitable subjects of academic freedom and political interference. He gave persuasive personal reasons for quitting HKU to take a job back home, yet he was sad about the early departure.
A lot has happened since my chat with him: a HKU alumna has taken over as the Chief Executive of Hong Kong and two HKU student protest leaders were spared jail time, even as Hong Kong became more polarised. Mathieson’s public messages have grown more combative in the face of media scrutiny and speculation. His seven-page year-end-message to the HKU community was uncharacteristically disparaging of the state of affairs before him. In our discussion, however, as he was about to embark on his year-long transition from HKU to Edinburgh, Mathieson was frank and reflective.
Here are the conversation’s highlights:
On students and the young people of Hong Kong: “They’re hardworking and they’re very focused on their studies. They are respectful of authority. They’re smart. They ask very good questions…. Hong Kong just needs to remember that its youth are one of its real assets in the world.”
On his resignation: “The honest truth is that there was uncertainty about my future here. I had no guarantees of a future here. And I was coming up to three years into my contract. You sort of expect that there would be some discussions about the second term, but there haven’t been.”
On his relationship with Li: “I wouldn’t say we necessarily have a particularly warm relationship. We have a cordial relationship right now.”
On “HeForShe”, the gender-balance initiative at HKU: “Elizabeth Nyamayaro, the head of the UN HeForShe campaign, says it very well: it’s not about the men coming to solve the problems that the women haven’t been able to solve. It is much more about the fact that in order to get equity, men are part of the problem. So it was the only way we can get them on our side is to have them directly involved.”
On academic freedom: “Academic freedom is challenged all around the world. I don’t think it’s just in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, the thing I worry about most is self-censorship.”
On political interference: “I have people in government giving me their opinions. I think it is only political interference if their opinions would make me do something that I didn’t think was right. I can honestly say that that’s never been the case.”
On HKU and Hong Kong’s advantage: “I see massive opportunities for Hong Kong and for HKU in China. We have an advantage over other universities elsewhere in the world because we’re part of China. We have this natural opportunity to have relationships…you know the materials that you’ve got here with staff, students, resources and geographical location. They’re second to none in the world.”
Advice to his successor: “Stick to the principles. Be strong because you’ll need to be. You know it’s a tough job, it’s a challenging job. There are lots of pressures, but actually it’s a very fulfilling job. Be strong and have somebody to talk to.”
With his departure, Mathieson will enter HKU history as the first VC to leave to become the head of another university. As he would agree, he has accomplished some tasks while leaving a lot more unfinished. It helps that he is a savvy communicator who writes his own speeches and answers many of his emails himself, sometimes in the wee hours. He has been an eloquent advocate of the university, as was evident in the way he talked to me about the HKU advantage and its students.
“I like the fact that he is always so positive about everything. He is an optimist,” said Stacy Belcher Lee, director of HKU Archives.
That said, the litany of his accomplishments Mathieson cited in his year-end-message was not met without skepticism or dissent on campus. His short tenure might have left lasting changes, for better or for worse.
Under Mathieson, more power and more resources seem to have gone to top management. Department heads cited examples such as the abolishment of the University Development Fund, a central pool of money that was available to faculties and departments under previous VCs. Also, faculty and department leaders recall that under earlier VCs, top management would trim their annual budget by 5%, but the funds collected would be made available to them for bidding in support of new initiatives. Under Mathieson, the “top-sliced “ money has been kept by central for its deployment. While senior management has given special grants to projects such as a programme on women leadership, the awards are no longer conducted through an open process. “He was definitely a centralising influence,” said a senior academic.
In addition, faculty members said that Mathieson and presidents of other universities could have pushed back harder against the overbearing bureaucratic processes stipulated by the University Grants Committee, which governs funding to Hong Kong’s public universities. Last year, the staff unions of HKU and five other universities went public to protest UGC’s request that sampled teaching staff should provide a timesheet of the hours they spend on teaching, research, meetings and public services.
Academic staff in the humanities are particularly apprehensive about research requirements that show little understanding of scholarship in the arts. For example, the academic value of a single-author book published by a renowned international publisher would be counted as the equivalent of a standard article in an academic journal. While the ability to secure research grants looms large in performance evaluation, academics in the arts and humanities keep telling me that grants are not germane to their research. “We don’t need money. We only need time to do our research and write,” they say.
Finally, Mathieson could find himself remiss for failing, for whatever reason, to form a full cabinet — whose size has grown to eight — as he takes off from Hong Kong for good this week. At the time of writing, HKU’s official website still carries a job advertisement — with a 28 February 2015 application deadline — searching for a provost/deputy VC, the second command at the top. According to the site, the university is also looking for candidates for a fifth PVC, a vacancy that has been left open since early last year.
Like Mathieson, his successor will have to confront day-to-day challenges that impact quality education, but also focus on big-picture issues, such as fostering an environment for academic freedom and reassuring faculty members fearful of speaking their minds and hurting their chances for tenure, promotion or extension of contract beyond the official retirement age of 60. And all this has to be done to stay true to the university’s vision to become a global hub of academic excellence in the context of a changing Hong Kong, a changing China, and a changing world.
Back at the gathering of the parents of the freshman class, Vice-president Ian Holliday, who oversees teaching and learning, described the six educational aims of the university, the raison d’etre for their children to enrol at HKU.
· Pursuit of academic/professional excellence, critical enquiry and life-long learning.
· Tackling novel situations and ill-defined problems.
· Critical self-reflection, greater understanding of others, and upholding personal and professional ethics.
· Intercultural understanding and global citizenship.
· Communication and collaboration.
· Leadership and advocacy for the improvement of the human condition.
Who can argue with such lofty goals? The challenge is how to go from here to there.
(Forthcoming: a transcript of Professor Mathieson’s interview with the writer.)
