Editorial | Hong Kong’s universities have to be open on reserves

A healthy fiscal reserve has proved to be essential as government revenues continue to be outstripped by expenditure in recent years. Public institutions with handsome reserves are also expected to make good use of their money, especially when subsidies for higher education take a large slice of the government spending pie.

The revelation that Hong Kong’s eight publicly funded universities have accumulated total reserves worth HK$140 billion may give the impression the higher education sector is financially capable of weathering funding cuts by the authorities. But, in the absence of more details, it would be premature to jump to conclusions.

Pressured by an annual deficit of more than HK$100 billion for three years in a row, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po has said there is “space for saving money” in the education and healthcare sectors. Whether this will translate into substantive cuts by the University Grants Committee (UGC), the funding arm for public higher education bodies, in the coming three-year funding cycle remains to be seen. But there is certainly room for universities to do better in terms of transparency and accountability.

When asked for more details on their fiscal reserves, institutions referred the Post to their annual reports. While all public universities have released such documents detailing their financial status, only one has disclosed its reserve numbers.

Figures obtained from the UGC show the reserves of the University of Hong Kong, which are the highest of all, rose 12 per cent to HK$41.5 billion in 2023-24. Chinese University came second with HK$35.5 billion, followed by Hong Kong University of Science and Technology at HK$19.93 billion.