Exodus of Teaching Staff Spreads to Tertiary Education Sector in Hong Kong

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). May 19, 2022.(Sung Pi-Lung/The Epoch Times)

The wave of resignations in Hong Kong’s education sector has now reached universities.

Local authorities announced a loss of 4,050 teachers from public and direct-funded primary and secondary schools in the 2021-22 school year, a record high in recent years. About 399 faculty members resigned from the publicly funded universities in the same school year, with a turnover rate of 7.4 percent, which recorded a new high since the transfer of sovereignty in 1997.

According to the University Grants Committee, in the 2021-22 academic year, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, a technology research-focused institution, suffered the most staff resignations, with 64 full-timers and 20 part-timers or short-term contracted for a total of 84 academic staff.

Polytechnic University, a science-focused university, lost 71 teaching staff, including 61 full-time and ten part-time or on short-term contracts.

‘Hong Kong No Longer Attractive’

Benson Wong Wai-kwok, an independent scholar of cultural studies and political science in Hong Kong, said in an interview with the Epoch Times on Jan. 30 that “ the implementation of the National Security Law, the confrontation between Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Western countries, the deterioration of academic freedom in Hong Kong, and strict anti-pandemic policies, are keys factors driving the scholars to leave,”

“Of all the Chinese societies, Hong Kong’s academic environment is the closest to the West, and that ‘at-home feeling’ attracted many overseas scholars to work here. The rise in resignations shows that Hong Kong is less attractive than before,” added Wong.

Wong mentioned other factors for the resignations, including eight local universities being required to show performance as one criterion for receiving research grants, some staff being terminated for not meeting performance criterias, and some scholars would have to leave if they were not promoted after six years of employment.

Wong explained that academic research takes time. The foundation is “a group of people who accumulate research results and experience ... If those people leave at an unprecedented pace, Hong Kong can only rely on money and wages to attract people, which will not help build Hong Kong’s research pedigree.”

“It is highly probable that Taiwan may soon replace Hong Kong and become the new base for studying China and Asian countries within East Asia. By then, Hong Kong cannot avoid the reality of seeing its decline in such academic prestige,” said Wong.

Scholars Leaving

Justin Wong, a former assistant professor at the School of Visual Arts of Baptist University (HKBU) and political cartoonist, resigned after being reported to the police for an academic article on the anti-extradition movement in September 2021.

Joseph Chan Cho-wai, a former professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), announced his resignation in 2021. He taught at HKU for 30 years.  He expressed his disappointment before leaving: “I can no longer speak freely.” Although he hopes that HKU could run its faculties with “leniency and be inclusive” in the future, he believes that in today’s difficult environment, such hopes are likely to bring unfathomed disappointment.

Other political scholars Dixon Sing Ming, Brian Fong Chi-hang, cultural studies scholar Ip Iam-chung, and some scholars who are relatively active in Hong Kong civil society have all resigned or even left Hong Kong in recent years due to various reasons.