Duan Chongzhi re-appointed︱Leung Mei-fen: Received letters from various parties requesting the Legislative Council to follow up with the first invitation to the Education Bureau to investigate

The Council of the Chinese University of Hong Kong has earlier approved the reappointment of Duan Chongzhi as the President of CUHK, and his term will be extended until December 31, 2026.

Based on Duan Chongzhi's performance in the anti-amendment turmoil, the renewal of office has been questioned by many parties.

Leung Mei Fun, Chairman of the Committee on Educational Affairs, said at the meeting today (6th) that she has received many letters of concern from all walks of life. In the morning, she also received a batch of letters from CUHK alumni requesting follow-up. It will first invite the Education Bureau and the University Grants Committee to follow up on the overall university governance situation, and stress that the Legislative Council has the power to regulate the use of public funds and governance issues in public universities.

Letters from all walks of life request follow-up on CUHK President's re-appointment of Leung Mei Fun: Invite the Education Bureau to follow up

Duan Chongzhi's re-appointment has caused controversy in the past few days. Leung Chun-ying, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and former chief executive, even posted a post questioning the decision. Legislative Council members Ho Kwan-yao and Chen Yuemingyan wrote to Leung Mei-fen, chairman of the Education Affairs Committee, expressing their dissatisfaction with Duan's re-appointment. And asked the representatives of CUHK to explain to the Legislative Council.

The Committee on Education is meeting today. At the beginning of the meeting, Chairman Leung Mei Fun stated that a group of CUHK alumni had received letters this morning requesting the Council to follow up on the reappointment of the CUHK President. Similar letters, including parents and citizens, etc.

She said that at this stage, there will be no investigation into individual incidents, and will first invite the Education Bureau to follow up on the current overall university governance situation, such as whether all public university councils are supervised by members of the Legislative Council, the selection process for principals and the public university regulations Wait, report to the committee, and then decide to follow up.

Leung Mei-fun said that the Legislative Council has the power to regulate the use and governance of public funds in public universities.

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Three Members are CUHK Council Members

Leung also said that some public university councils currently have Legislative Council members, while the CUHK council has three members. She believes that the three members have already implemented the decision on behalf of the Legislative Council. "I think she has fully considered the Legislative Council's opinion. Because they have been following up on university governance issues all the way, the last term (the Legislative Council) discussed several times on university governance issues and the quality of students in line with social expectations.” According to the CUHK website, the three members are Zhang Yuren, Liu Guoxun and Mai Meijuan.

Legislative Council has power to regulate public university governance issues

She also mentioned that in 2002, as a university professor, she was invited to testify before the Legislative Education Commission on the case of racial discrimination in the re-appointment of faculty members at CityU Law School.

She pointed out that the practice at the time was that as long as public universities did not violate the law in terms of academics, they would have autonomy. However, the Legislative Council and the public had the right to supervise issues related to the use of public funds and university governance, including the public’s expectations of university performance.

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