The Council of City University of Hong Kong (CityU) approved at its meeting today (26 March) the proposed Performance-based Pay Review Scheme (the Scheme) to enhance quality of education and ensure the University is accountable to taxpayers. All but one of all the Council members voted for the proposal at the meeting. There was no abstention.

The Scheme aims to raise and reward good performance of faculty members and will be implemented with effect from l July 2009.

The Hon Leung Chun-ying, Chairman of the Council, believed that the Scheme demonstrated how CityU executed its social responsibility.

“CityU has always been seeking ways to make sure that meritorious performance are recognised and rewarded, and that public resources are used prudently and justly,” he said. “The implementation of the Scheme would help enhance the quality of education at CityU.”

After extensive consultation with different stakeholders, the eleven-person Working Group on the Scheme has taken into account the views and feedback received through different channels and refined the Scheme in response to the suggestions from faculty members. To make sure the Scheme works well, a thorough review of the Scheme will be conducted at the conclusion of each pay raise assessment cycle.

The Senate discussed the Scheme at its meeting on 24 March. There are over 100 members of the Senate, the majority are faculty members and include all the Vice-Presidents, Deans, heads of academic departments and one elected member from each department. The presentation of the Scheme and the subsequent discussion lasted for over one hour and members were able to have a thorough discussion of the principles and procedures contained in the proposal. All those who spoke agreed that the scheme was a significant improvement on current practice and offered a suitable means of moving forward. Members agreed that the quantitative approach adopted by the scheme would provide a good basis for evaluating the performance of staff but may need to be supplemented by a more qualitative assessment of the work of an individual faculty member. It was generally agreed that this could be accommodated within the flexibility of the Scheme. There were no dissenting voices at the meeting and the Chairman concluded, with members, that the Scheme had the positive support of the Senate.

In view of the keen competition facing the higher education sector regionally and globally, CityU is taking all possible and reasonable means to stay competitive and to live up to its high quality educational goals. With the concerted efforts of its faculty members and supporting staff, the University will continue to improve itself and contribute to the nurturing of future leaders for Hong Kong and beyond.

For media enquiries, please contact:

Jenny Kwan, Communications and Public Relations Office (Tel: 3442 6548 or 9306 8568)

Attachment: Chairman of Working Group on the Performance-based Pay Review Scheme’s Response to the Staff Association Survey

Attachment: Chairman of Working Group on the Performance-based Pay Review Scheme’s Response to the Staff Association Survey

(Below is the full text of the email sent to all CityU staff on 26 March)

The University values and respects feedback from our colleagues regarding the Performance-based Pay Review Scheme (the Scheme). As a responsible institution, we feel obliged to draw your attention to three misleading points related to the Survey conducted by the Staff Association on the Scheme and announced on 25^th March by the Staff Association:

1) Unreliable Results

Starting from 10^th March, the Staff Association has sent nine messages to around 4500 CityU and Community College of City University staff members to solicit response to its questionnaire on the Scheme. The survey only gathered 228 replies. The majority of the University community has ignored it. Even for the 228 replies received, the Staff Association failed to disclose how many of those replies in fact came from faculty members actually affected by the Scheme. Since respondents to the questionnaire were able to submit anonymously there is no check on the reliability of the data. The reported survey results are therefore grossly unreliable and the percentages quoted are totally misleading since they apply to only the 228 replies; i.e. only 5% of the recipients of the survey.

2) Untrue Statements

Contrary to the claim that staff has received no document relating to the proposed Scheme to enable them to make informed decisions, easy access to the full document can be made through the University web. Wide consultation has been held with different stakeholders through multiple channels since the Chinese New Year. The CityU Senate, comprising 115 faculty members, discussed and expressed welcome to the Scheme on 24 March.

3) Unfounded Allegation

It is an unfounded allegation that the Scheme proposed to make publication in top 10% Journals an actual criterion to review research performance, which would result in a sacrifice of academic freedom. In fact, the Scheme states unambiguously that assessment criteria and standards are to be drawn up through consultation among faculty members using a bottom-up approach, and will therefore be department/discipline specific.

We are deeply encouraged by the support of the University community and the Senate for the Scheme. Thank you for your attention.

Gabriel Chan
Chairman
The Working Group on the Performance-based Pay Review Scheme