Universities are places for education, not political protests that ultimately fail to change anything

Anson Au says the university’s primary role is the delivery of education. While free speech is an integral part of learning, it should not hinder the provision of education itself

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Students gather at Chinese University to mark the start of a week-long class boycott to protest at the central government’s refusal to grant Hong Kong full universal suffrage. This protest culminated in a march to the Hong Kong government headquarters in Admiralty and kicked off the Occupy Central movement. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:03pm, 7 Feb 2018Updated: 7:08pm, 7 Feb 2018

Over the past few years, Hong Kong universities have become prominent sites of contentious politics, from the organisation of Occupy Central to ongoing disputes between groups of students over the democracy wall at Chinese University and the recent stand-off against Baptist University’s Mandarin language graduation requirement mounted by two student union leaders.

Pro-democracy camps have leveraged these cases to suggest a broader oppression from the mainland, whereas pro-Beijing groups have responded by blaming them on a larger youth culture set on breaking the law. But a fundamental part of the picture has been overlooked: what is the purpose of the university itself? To what extent is it a place for free speech?

Yes to free speech, no to free-for-all on university campuses

My years of conducting research, teaching and studying at universities around the world, including Harvard, the London School of Economics, University of Toronto and Baptist University, show that there’s a need for free speech in the university – but with boundaries.

How Hong Kong’s Occupy protests kicked off

Free speech must be granted for ideas. Since Plato’s academy in ancient Athens, the university has been rightfully seen as a place for the free exchange of ideas without repercussions. After all, only the freedom to express can nurture the creativity to think, innovate and improve.

As American feminist bell hooks said, “The classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy.” Among my own students, all views are encouraged without repercussion. Great ideas result – new ways to improve high school education among visible minorities; pragmatic suggestions for improving mental health services for the disadvantaged in society. But, sometimes, bad ideas surface as well – blaming the systematic murder of black US citizens by white policemen on the black victims themselves; calls to allow immigration without vetting who we’re letting in.

Hong Kong’s young democrats need some lessons on democracy

The purpose of the university is not only to nurture students’ ability to think critically, but to guide their ideas to the service of ethical ideals that aim to understand society and to ultimately improve it. Throughout, ideas must be packaged in civil discussion. Offensive discourse is unacceptable, much less violent or threatening action. It wasn’t right for Lau Tsz-kei and Andrew Chan Lok-hang at Baptist University to organise an entire protest against administrative staff about a policy, rather than drafting a petition and starting a collective discourse with the university. It wasn’t acceptable for them to lash out at staff with personal remarks. But neither was it right for others to send death threats to their Facebook accounts and workplaces.

Baptist University Mandarin row boils over

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