Exclusive | Hong Kong’s universities will not be asked to return funds again: minister
Education chief says clawback was for ‘riding out difficult times’, while renewed three-year agreement will ensure institutions are accountable
Hong Kong’s public universities will not be asked to return funds from their reserves again, the city’s education minister has said, months after authorities announced an unprecedented clawback of HK$4 billion (US$513 million) from eight institutions.
Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin also said that an “accountability agreement” signed by the University Grants Committee (UGC) and the individual institutions in June sought to ensure they would implement what they had promised.
While the government also announced in the latest budget earlier this year it would claw back some funds from universities, Choi said the amount requested had reached the limit that the institutions could bear.
“I think we will not do it again,” Choi told the Post in an exclusive interview, adding that the move was only intended for “riding out difficult times together”.
The decision required the universities to return a combined HK$4 billion from their reserves as part of measures unveiled by the government to tackle a massive deficit.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong had the largest sum to return to the government – HK$1 billion.