President, I move the Second Reading of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Amendment) Bill 2023 (“the Bill”).

The Bill is a Members’ bill jointly proposed by me, Mr LAU Kwok-fan and Mr TANG Ka-piu as Council Members of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (“CUHK”).  It seeks to implement the recommendations of two reports, namely the Report on Higher Education in Hong Kong published by the University Grants Committee (“UGC”) in 2002 (commonly known as the “Sutherland Report”) and the Report on Governance in UGC-funded Higher Education Institutions in Hong Kong published in 2016 (commonly known as the “Newby Report”), so as to improve the governance of CUHK.

The SAR Government has accepted these two reports.  Over the years, the CUHK Council has agreed to downsizing.  In 2009 and 2016, it had attempted twice to implement the recommendations of the two reports, but owing to various reasons, the matter was left unfinished and fizzled out.  In the end, CUHK is the only local UGC-funded university that has not implemented any reform of its Council in line with “good governance” principles.

A certificate for the Bill has been obtained from the Law Draftsman of the Department of Justice as required by the Basic Law and the Rules of Procedure.  The Bill does not relate to public expenditure, political structure or the operation of the Government.  But it relates to government policies and requires the prior written consent of the Chief Executive.  The Bill relates to government policies in the following two areas:

First, it involves the power of the Chief Executive as the Chancellor of CUHK in respect of the appointment of members of the CUHK Council; and

Second, the SAR Government has accepted the recommendation of the Sutherland Report that UGC-funded tertiary institutions must critically review their governance and management structures to ensure their fitness for purpose, and the object of the Bill is precisely to put the Administration’s request into practice.

On 25 May 2023, the Chief Executive issued his written consent to the Bill.

Here, the three of us, with me speaking on behalf of Mr LAU Kwok-fan and Mr TANG Ka-piu, would like to reiterate that the Bill is not a private bill to deal with CUHK’s internal affairs in general or to realize our personal visions.  Rather, it is a Members’ bill to take forward the reform of school administration which should have been carried out but has been left undone by the CUHK Council, in order to protect the public interest.  I must point out that CUHK has not updated The Chinese University of Hong Kong Ordinance (“CUHK Ordinance”) or the Statutes of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (“the Statutes”) since it proposed to amend the Statutes in 2012, resulting in a gap of more than 10 years in the reform or updating of the school administration of CUHK.  Coupled with the appalling incident which occurred on CUHK’s campus during the “black-clad riots” in 2019, it has long been an indisputable objective fact that there are problems with CUHK’s governance.  Since the three of us serve as members of the CUHK Council in our capacity as Legislative Council Members, in proactively introducing a Members’ bill to promptly and effectively resolve the longstanding problems which CUHK has failed to tackle by itself, we are simply discharging our basic responsibility as Legislative Council Members and members of the CUHK Council.

Procedurally, as required by the Rules of Procedure, the Bill was published in the Gazette on 9 and 16 June 2023, and notice of the Bill has been given by advertisement in locally published Chinese and English newspapers.

Specifically, the Bill proposes to reform the size and composition of the CUHK Council.  In respect of the size, the membership of the Council will be reduced from the current 55 to 34.  The reorganized Council will comprise a majority of external members at the ratio of about 2:1 relative to the number of internal members.  The number of internal members (i.e. current students or employees of CUHK) will be 11, whereas the number of external members (including graduates of CUHK) will be 23.  It can be asserted that the ratio of “non-CUHK persons” to those related to CUHK in the reorganized Council will definitely be less than 2:1.

As regards the composition of the Council, the composition of the 34 seats has been set out in detail in the Legislative Council Brief.  I am not going to repeat it here.  The relevant proposal, with the exception of one item, is broadly in line with the conclusion of the report submitted in 2023 by the Taskforce formed by the CUHK Council for the Bill.

At the same time, the Bill has proposed amendments to the methods of appointment of five key members of the Council.  The Vice-Chancellor and the Provost are to be appointed by resolution of the CUHK Council passed by the votes of not less than three fourths of the whole membership of the Council for the time being; and secondly, the Treasurer, the Chairman and the Vice-Chairman of the Council are to be appointed by the Chancellor.  The Taskforce considers it appropriate to raise the appointment threshold for the Vice-Chancellor and the Provost to a 75% majority of the Council to reflect the importance in the appointment of the two highest positions of the University.  Moreover, the appointment of the Treasurer, the Chairman and the Vice-Chairman of the Council by the Chancellor can demonstrate the public accountability of CUHK.  It is in line with the standard practice in other UGC-funded universities.

Moreover, we have taken the opportunity of proposing the Members’ Bill to proactively address the issue concerning the role and status of the Masters of additional Colleges of CUHK besides New Asia College, United College, Chung Chi College and Shaw College.  During the course of our review of the CUHK Ordinance and the Statutes, we found that the CUHK Ordinance and the Statutes had almost left the role of the Masters of the additional Colleges in a vacuum.  The five additional Colleges have been set up for some 10 years.  The aforesaid situation clearly does not meet the practical requirements.  After the passage of the Bill, the Masters of the five additional Colleges shall be officers of CUHK on par with the Heads of the three original Colleges and Shaw College, members of CUHK, eligible to be elected as a member of the Council, and may serve as members of major school administration bodies of CUHK, including the Administrative and Planning Committee and the Senate.

On the other hand, in response to the stakeholders’ suggestions, the Bill has also updated and clarified matters relating to the operation of the Council, such as the quorum of the Council, as well as the meaning of “the whole membership of the Council” and “by a majority of the members”.

Lastly, the Bill has also made other related and consequential amendments to the CUHK Ordinance and the Statutes.

Regarding consultation, on 12 December 2022, we submitted a working draft of the Bill to the CUHK Council for consultation on such matters as reforming the size and composition of the Council and revising the methods of appointment of the five key members of the Council.  In addition, the Council resolved to set up a Taskforce to follow it up.  Subsequently, the Taskforce held a major consultation exercise within CUHK and submitted its report in April 2023.  On 17 April 2023, the Council endorsed the report after discussion.

Moreover, on 16 December 2022, we submitted the working draft of the Bill to the Legislative Council Panel on Education for consultation.  In the light of the incident which took place in CUHK in 2019, most of the Members supported the amendments proposed in the working draft of the Bill.

We believe that the proposals in the Bill will effectively improve the governance of CUHK and give effect to the requirements of the Sutherland Report and the Newby Report.

With these remarks, I hope Members will support the Bill.  Thank you, President.