Hong Kong’s public universities have the ability to weather any potential slashing of government funding under deficit reduction efforts thanks to their financial reserves, a lawmaker has said, calling for any cuts to be applied consistently across the board.
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The eight institutions’ reserves stood at HK$125.9 billion (US$16.2 billion) in the 2022-23 financial year, with the University of Hong Kong’s coffers accounting for HK$37.1 billion of the sum.
Lawmaker Lau Chi-pang, associate vice-president of Lingnan University, said on Monday that any plans to slash education funding would be understandable given the government’s plans to reduce its deficit, adding that he was adamant public universities would weather any such cuts.
“Universities enjoy the autonomy of using their current income and reserves, like we can use them for hiring, research, enhancing the hardware and software,” he said.
The legislator said it was time to encourage academics and scientists to secure funding by sharing their research with the market.
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The government allocates recurrent grants to the city’s eight publicly funded universities in the form of a block grant, with the amount typically covering a period of three academic years.