Mr. Jeremy Page,
Home Office,
Lunar House,
40 Wellesley Road, Croydon CR9 2BY, United Kingdom
Dear Jorenzy.
852 877 6802
P.02
GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
28 November 1990
You will
Local Directorate in the SSC
recall that the HKG local directorate officers constitute one of the main components of the Sensitive Service Class in the nationality scheme. For some time we have been struggling with how we can contain the claims of the senior academic staff in our public Universities under this component. Their case has been anchored on the fully Government subvented status of the Universities and their academic staff being on similar scales of remuneration as civil servants.
After considering these claims carefully, the Governor has decided that the case for including all senior academic staff of the Universities in the directorate component of the SSC cannot be accepted largely because there are too many of them and the precedent they may create for other subvented organisations.
However, the specific case of the senior academic staff in the medical faculties of the Hong Kong University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong is uniquely different and very strong. These doctors come from the same background as the medical consultants employed in our Department of Hospital Services, who are included in the SSC. In many cases they are better qualified. They are on the same salary scale. They work side by side with Government doctors in Government hospitals. Senior lecturers and Readers are equal in rank as junior and senior Government medical consultants respectively. equivalent to Government Secretaries, i.e. permanent secretary level.
Clinical professors are
We are conscious of the fact that the number of places available for SSC is very limited. The Governor has thus decided that it would not be possible to accommodate all senior clinical staff of the Universities. He has ruled that only those in the positions of professor or dean should be treated as directorate officers for the purpose of the SSC. There are 39 Deans and Professors in the medical faculties of the two Universities, some of whom have already secured a foreign