A plan to bring the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts under the control of the University Grants Committee has sparked shock and alarm among its senior academics.
The plan is among key recommendations in a major review of higher education that the UGC announced yesterday. The review provides a road map for the future of universities that the government is expected to broadly follow. It came as a surprise to academy leaders, who were neither consulted nor given advance notice of its release.
The UGC's report, Aspirations for the Higher Education System in Hong Kong, states that it would be 'logical' to entrust oversight of the academy's funding to the UGC to 'ensure consistency in the allocation of public resources' in higher education.
This would facilitate co-operation between the academy and the eight publicly funded institutions in areas such as teaching and extra-curricular learning.
The report noted the academy's 'unique nature' and pledged the UGC's 'funding and oversight regime' could accommodate that.
UGC chairwoman Laura Cha Shih May-lung said it was not appropriate for the HKAPA, a recipient of public funding, to remain separate from the eight publicly funded institutions. 'We hope to put the HKAPA under the UGC umbrella. Due to historical reasons, it is now under the Home Affairs Bureau. We want to rationalise the publicly funded tertiary sector.
'We have not asked HKAPA about the issue. We expect to draw objections from them. But if the government endorses the idea, students from the other eight institutions can benefit by being able to go to HKAPA for exchanges.'
