XN000022-1996-05-28 — Page 11

9.

Salary adjustment for heads of UGC-funded school proposed

The Government has considered the recommendations by the University Grants Committee (UGC) on the appropriate salary scales for the heads of its seven tertiary institutions, following a consultancy review recently conducted by UGC.

"The Government accepts the findings of the consultancy and the UGC's recommendations that the heads of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) are within the same job evaluation boundaries as policy secretaries in the civil service and that they should be remunerated at the D8 salary level on the Civil Service Directorate pay scale.

"As for the heads of the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) and Lingnan College (LC), we accept that the former is within the same job evaluation boundaries as heads of Group I departments in the civil service whereas the latter the heads of Group II departments.

"The two should therefore be remunerated at the D7 and D6 salary levels respectively," a government spokesman said today (Tuesday).

The present salary levels of the heads of HKU, CUHK and HKUST are pegged at 98% of the Chief Secretary's salary, and those of the heads of PolyU and CityU at D7, while that of the head of HKBU and LC at D6 and D5 respectively.. The spokesman pointed out that the proposed salary levels would lead to downward adjustments in the salaries of the heads of HKU, CUHK and HKUST.

However, he stressed that the incumbents would not be affected.

"We accept that these institutional heads are entitled to their contractual rights and should therefore be allowed to retain their present salaries under their current contracts until their salaries are overtaken by the D8 salary.

"Moreover, we accept that for staff management reasons and in the interests of continuity, the governing bodies of the institutions should be allowed the flexibility of offering the incumbents their present salary levels in dollar terms on a personal basis upon entering into further contracts, provided the salary levels would be frozen until they are overtaken by the D8 level," the spokesman said.

As regards the upward salary adjustments for the heads of PolyU, CityU, HKBU and LC, the spokesman said the Government had difficulty backdating the salary adjustments for the four heads to November 1994 as recommended by UGC.