The role of universities in society

It is often asserted that state tertiary education institutions should evolve to meet the changing needs of the funding society. Hong Kong's tertiary institutions, inheriting a British model protective of academic freedom, enjoy considerable administrative autonomy and strategic independence from immediate external government direction. Such independence places significant responsibility in applying provided funds to the objectives desired by the state. In recent years, the tertiary environment in Hong Kong has been subject to considerable, and continuing, change placing increased demand on teaching quality. In contrast, recommendations of the University Grants Committee emphasise variable and competitive funding based on research publication. The University of Hong Kong's strategic response has been to position itself as a 'research-led' institution, seeking to secure elitist student intake. This policy is evidenced unambiguously in the strategic plan and human resource policies. Consequences of this are an internal teaching culture that is sliding from 'strolling' to 'sinking' and a research culture that is evolving a stronger 'trading view'. The author asserts that there exists a significant disjoint between the demands of the funding society and the strategic positioning adopted by the university, and that strategic policy formulation should be grounded in critical reflection of required university role. The author suggests a systems analysis approach, focusing on societal desired output, available intake and processes required to connect the two, to achieve an appropriate balance in the weighting and relationship between primary outputs - educated citizens, research of value to the host society, and learned scrutiny of that society.