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Remuneration of university heads review
Following is a question by the Hon Emily Lau and a written reply by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mr Joseph Wong, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
In regard to a recent report concerning the appointment of a consultancy firm by the University Grants Committee to review the remuneration of heads of universities in the territory, will the Government inform this Council:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
of the reasons for and the objectives of commissioning the review;
whether the remuneration received by heads of universities is set at 98% of that received by the Chief Secretary, if so, what the rationale is;
whether the existing system of linking the remuneration and fringe benefits of heads and senior teaching staff of universities to those of comparable ranks in the Civil Service will be examined in the review;
and
when the review will be completed and whether the findings of the review will be released for public consultation?
Reply:
Mr President,
(a)
In the context of the University Grants Committee (UGC)'s review of the salaries of the Heads of City University of Hong Kong (CityU), Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), Lingnan College (LC) and Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), the Administration requested the UGC to undertake a review of the salary scales of all the Heads of the UGC-funded institutions as the Government is concerned about whether the existing salaries of the Heads are at an appropriate level. At present, the salaries of the vice-chancellors of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and University of Hong Kong (HKU) are pegged at 98% of the Chief Secretary (CS)'s salary whereas that of the Heads of other four UGC-funded institutions are set at lower levels equivalent to various points on the Directorate Pay Scale of the civil service. In the light of the changes in the nature and scale of responsibilities of the CS and other senior civil servants in recent years, there is a need to review the current relativity of the salaries of the Heads to the CS. The objectives of the consultancy are, therefore, to: