Exclusive | University of Hong Kong chief appoints acting registrar without governing council approval
- Xiang Zhang, the HKU president, announces appointment of pro-vice-chancellor Ian Holliday to role in Sunday email
Xiang Zhang, the university’s president and vice-chancellor, announced the appointment in an internal email to staff and students on Sunday.
The Post obtained the email signed by Zhang, in which he said that Ian Holliday, the pro-vice-chancellor of teaching and learning, would become acting registrar from July 1.
The email said Holliday would replace interim registrar Dora Yue Kar-man, who is retiring.
“I would like to wish Ms Yue a happy retirement and thank Professor Holliday for his willingness to take up the role,” Zhang wrote.
The move came just weeks after the government set up an investigation and study group to address the infighting at the city’s oldest university.
According to a university statute, the council appoints the interim registrar which was the case of Holliday’s predecessor, Dora Yue.
A paper to the council concerning Yue’s appointment tabled by the vice-chancellor clearly spelled out that he had invited the council to consider her for the position of interim registrar from September 2023 to June 2024.
But this time, it was understood that the council had not received a nomination of Holliday or approved the appointment before the announcement was made.
The Post has contacted the vice chancellor’s office and HKU for comment.
Information about members of the senior management team, president’s office and senate have been removed from the university website since the reshuffle.
The trio were Vivian Yam Wing-wah, interim provost and deputy vice-chancellor, Alfonso Ngan Hing-wan, interim vice-president on academic development, and medical dean Dr Wallace Lau Chak-sing , who was appointed as interim vice-president.
A source said they had appeared on stage in their capacity as part of the senior management team.
Yue, while acting registrar, penned a series of letters to Zhang in March and April that asked him to explain a string of absences from academic board meetings over the past six years and his failure to give details of 16 business trips that spanned almost 147 days.
The registrar is also the governing council’s secretary, but is not a member of it.
Other letters accused Zhang of “a breach of governance” after he was found to have endorsed a candidate for the executive vice-president’s position, even as he failed to obtain the needed approval for the candidate’s proposed salary from HKU’s human resources committee.
Zhang was said to have questioned the letters and said that the governing council’s secretary required authorisation from the body.
He added that the letters did not detail who on the council had authorised the previous secretary, in line with university protocol.
The government announced earlier this month that it had set up an investigation group to look at the facts of the dispute, and suggest solutions to the conflict between Zhang and Wong, the council chairwoman.
The latest controversy was triggered in May when the council endorsed the appointment of several interim vice-president positions, allegedly without consulting Zhang.
The reshuffle led to the effective demotion of Zhang’s right-hand man, deputy vice-chancellor Richard Wong Yue-chim, who had been the university’s interim provost since 2019.
Tensions between Zhang and the council date back to early last year when anonymous complaints were lodged against him, accusing him of misconduct and mismanagement.
Wong promised to investigate the accusations and set up a panel to look into the claims.
Zhang was cleared of any wrongdoing in April but dissension within the university’s leadership has persisted.
