The Decline of Academic Freedom in Hong Kong

The 4 trends comparison diagrams below indicate that academic freedom in Hong Kong has been consistently deteriorating in the last 2 decades. The overall picture is worse than other much less open societies that have shown some sort of improvements.

The above is a regional comparison plotted out the position of academic freedom in HK relative to other Asian countries. Jurisdictions with red dots indicate deterioration in academic freedom scores since 1997 to 2019. Jurisdictions with green dots indicate improvement in academic freedom index.

The table below further explains the overall comparative position where HK sits in the global picture. HK is under status C. This table can be interpreted like a traffic light warning system. Countries/jurisdictions under status C, D, E are places where academic freedom is not guaranteed. The implication according to the report is that for funding organisations purpose, applicants need to submit risk mitigation strategy as part of any application to undertake research in or with countries in C, D, E status. Moreover, funders should make comprehensive risk assessments and written risk mitigation plans as necessary conditions for countries that have low academic index freedom. (ref. p 24 of the report)

Hong Kong belongs to the group of 10 jurisdictions that experienced deterioration of academic freedom by at least 0.1 points in the last 5 years. On the contrary, other much less developed countries made improvements in academic freedom. According to the Putting Academic Freedom into Action report prepared by the Global Public Policy Institute, countries and jurisdictions having consistent downward trend of academic freedom in this table should be monitored more closely or received more attention. (Ref p.17 of the report)

Source: Global Public Policy Institute 

https://www.gppi.net/2020/03/26/free-universities