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.
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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.
She revealed that nearly all of the universities had returned the funds requested by the government, a move which was announced in the latest annual budget earlier this year.
“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.
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The Chinese University of Hong Kong had the largest sum to return to the government – HK$1 billion.