HKU faculty blame ‘culture of opacity’ as v-c denies misconduct

Allegations that the head of Hong Kong’s leading university mishandled funds reflect years of simmering discontent over low morale, a lack of transparency and top-down decision-making, academics said.

Xiang Zhang, who has been vice-chancellor of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) since 2018, faces claims widely reported in local media that he mishandled donations from mainland China, which reportedly went to his office, and failed to follow procurement rules when replacing the presidential car. He is also accused of appointing senior administrators without adhering to due procedure.

Professor Zhang, who denies wrongdoing, was due to meet with the university’s governing council on 9 October, with the row drawing in John Lee, who as chief executive of Hong Kong serves as the university’s chancellor, and called for the dispute to be resolved “in a fair and impartial manner”.

Faculty members who spoke to Times Higher Education on condition of anonymity said that longstanding issues at HKU had worsened since Professor Zhang assumed the presidency and appointed a new senior management team (SMT).

“A large fraction of the faculty have a rather low view of how the SMT are running the university,” said one scholar. “Morale is very low because they feel that many key aspects of their jobs and careers are way beyond their control.”

He said it was unclear how the current incident had come about, whether through a whistleblower or friction with a senior administrator, but added: “It does, though, suggest a deep level of resentment and frustration.”

In a statement, Professor Zhang said that he had engaged a lawyer in light of the “severe defamation” against him.

“Instigators leaking confidential communications and internal information from within the university…deliberately distort facts and take statements out of context, directing their attacks towards both the University of Hong Kong and myself,” he said.

“It is believed that these actions are intentionally orchestrated by certain individuals or groups.”

However, faculty speaking to THE felt that recent allegations against Professor Zhang were, in the words of one professor, “at the bottom of the pile” compared with issues around faculty morale, retention and promotion.

The scholar said they believed that Professor Zhang’s “heavy handed” leadership style had “ruffled some feathers”, claiming that the vice-chancellor had intervened to overturn faculty recommendations on tenure decisions.

“The university as a whole has changed a lot in the last several years, where faculty have less and less voice and are taken less seriously even in their own fields,” the professor said.

Professor Zhang and HKU were approached for comment on the faculty complaints.

While the current row might reflect discontent at HKU, it also comes amid a delicate political climate in Hong Kong, with some scholars regarding Professor Zhang, a Nanjing-born Chinese American who had not worked in the city prior to his appointment, with suspicion.

“Although some of that is unfair, there’s a schism around that issue…that could be part of this conflict,” the professor said.

A third academic was sceptical that recent events had been driven by politics, but was concerned that they could take a more political turn if Professor Zhang were to be forced from his post.

“The worry is they’ll bring someone in from the mainland that will have no sense of what HKU is…that would be devastating to HKU,” he said.

The academic said that there had not been any official communication from the university about the current events, aside from a memo directing faculty not to speak to the media.

pola.lem@timeshighereducation.com