Who is HKU's highest-paid employee? — Reading professorial salary structure through the UGC's annual disclosure bands

A written reply tabled in the Legislative Council, a salary band table sliced into HK$150,000 increments — that is the entirety of HKU's salary ledger as seen from the outside. No names, no exact figures, only ranges.

In one sentence: According to the financial report data of UGC-funded universities appended to the Education Bureau's written reply of 2023, the highest employee salary band at the University of Hong Kong rose between 2017/18 and 2021/22, from $7,200,001 to the range of $7,800,001–$7,950,000.

# What exactly is the "highest employee salary band"? — Where HKU's figures come from

Every year, the University of Hong Kong (HKU), like the seven other institutions funded by the University Grants Committee^※ (UGC), must disclose in its financial statements a figure that attracts little public scrutiny: the salary band into which its highest-paid employee falls. This figure is not a "Vice-Chancellor's annual salary" proactively published by the University; it only surfaces after a Legislative Council member raises a question and the Education Bureau compiles and tables a reply.

On 3 May 2023, Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin gave a written reply to Legislator Tang Ka-piu's question on "terms of employment of senior personnel of universities"^※, with an annex listing the "highest employee salary bands" reported in the financial statements of the eight UGC-funded universities over the five academic years from 2017/18 to 2021/22. HKU's entries for those five years read, in order: $7,200,001–$7,350,000; $7,950,000–$8,100,000; $7,800,001–$7,950,000; $7,650,001–$7,800,000; and $7,800,001–$7,950,000^※.

The basis of calculation must be stated clearly up front: this is not something the phrase "Vice-Chancellor's annual salary" can simply stand in for. The official note explains that remuneration includes salary, allowances, contract gratuity, contributions to retirement schemes, housing benefits and other fringe benefits, and that the financial information covers only activities at the university level, excluding subsidiary companies^※. In other words, this is a band — sliced at HK$150,000 intervals — into which a basket of benefits has first been converted into cash. Two people landing in the same band may be nearly HK$150,000 apart, or just one dollar apart; outsiders have no way of telling.

# Where did this disclosure come from? — How a 2003 audit report prised open the salary ledger

That HKU salary figures are today shown in bands can be traced back to a dispute, more than two decades ago, over "where the money comes from and who sets the price". In June 1996, the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council approved setting the salary scales of university heads at point 8 of the directorate pay scale, with reference to the pay of civil servants at comparable ranks and the salaries of overseas university presidents^※ — which meant that, at the time, the HKU Vice-Chancellor's salary was, in essence, priced on an "anchor to the civil service" basis.

A subsequent value-for-money study by the Audit Commission punctured that tacit understanding. The Director of Audit's report revealed that six of the eight UGC-funded institutions had used non-UGC funds to pay their presidents additional salaries, either at higher pay scales or in the form of cash allowances, amounting to between 3% and 98% of the salary approved by the Finance Committee^※. One case stood out as particularly glaring: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) paid its President a cash allowance of about $177,000 per month from its non-government funds, including about $138,000 per month in lieu of housing benefits and leave travel allowance, making the President's total monthly cash remuneration not only higher than the amount approved by the Finance Committee, but the highest among all university heads^※. The Legislative Council's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) subsequently found that PolyU's Council had, without approval, delegated the decision on the allowance arrangement to one of its committees, which appeared to contravene section 9(3)(c) of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Ordinance, under which the Council may not delegate its power to approve terms and conditions of service to any committee^※.

The episode ultimately drove two developments. First, university salary structures were, with effect from 1 July 2003, decoupled from the civil service pay scale, and each institution was free to retain its existing system or adopt a new one^※. Second, the PAC noted in its conclusions that, although UGC-funded institutions "received substantial amounts of public money, there was no guidance requiring them to make public disclosure of the pay of their senior staff^※", and urged the UGC to work out disclosure guidelines in consultation with the institutions. The then Vice-Chancellor of HKU, Professor Tsui Lap-chee, expressed support at the public hearing, saying that when he worked in Canada he, too, had to disclose his salary to the public^※ — a remark that, to some extent, set the tone for HKU's later acceptance of annual salary band disclosure. The table sliced at HK$150,000 increments in today's Legislative Council papers is the institutional legacy of that dispute two decades ago.

# How much has HKU's highest-paid employee's pay risen over the years?

Laid out in a row, the official figures for the five academic years show that HKU's highest employee salary band has not risen in a straight line; it has drifted within a relatively stable range:

Source: Annex to the Education Bureau's written reply of 3 May 2023^※, compiled from the financial reports of UGC-funded universities; the basis is the highest employee salary band at the university level (including contract gratuity, pension contributions, housing benefits, etc.).

For years after 2021/22, official written replies no longer cover the band, and one can only piece things together through subsequent press reports citing the figures — and these reports typically round to the nearest ten-thousand dollars rather than listing the precise boundaries of the HK$150,000 bands. According to a May 2025 report in Esquire HK, HKU's highest-paid employee in 2023/24 earned approximately $8.1 million to $8.3 million^※, continuing the modest upward drift from the official 2021/22 figure. As for the specific figure for 2022/23, this article could not locate any independent first-hand written disclosure from the Education Bureau or the UGC; that year's gap is left unfilled rather than guessed at through interpolation.

# Comparing the eight universities: where does HKU rank, and who sits at the top?

Looking at HKU's figures in isolation risks missing a key piece of context: from the very beginning, this disclosure has been presented as a "package of eight", and comparison is itself one of the reasons the document exists. According to the same official 2023 annex, the highest employee salary bands across the eight universities for 2021/22 were:

Source: Annex to the Education Bureau's written reply of 3 May 2023^※. City University of Hong Kong topped the eight universities for five consecutive academic years (2017/18–2021/22)^※, while HKU consistently ranked third or fourth over those five years — never breaking into the top two, and never dropping out of the top four. Lingnan University was last in all five years, with a gap from HKU that held steady at roughly $1.5 million to $2 million.

The ranking saw a partial reshuffle in 2023/24. According to the Esquire HK report, that year CityU again led with $8.55 million–$8.7 million, CUHK moved up to second with $8.25 million–$8.4 million, and HKU was third with $8.1 million–$8.3 million^※. Notably, HKUST's figure for the same year was reported at $7.05 million–$7.2 million, markedly down from its official 2021/22 figure of $8.1 million–$8.25 million^※. Such large year-on-year swings are usually tied to whether a change of president took place in that academic year, with old and new contracts paying on different bases. Since this article could not locate independent first-hand data for 2022/23 to confirm the precise transition path, that inference is offered only as background, not incorporated into the main conclusions.

# What exactly is inside this "remuneration"? — Starting from PolyU's HK$177,000 cash allowance

The PolyU case above happens to be the best specimen for unpacking the composition of a "salary band", precisely because it is one of the very few cases where the Audit Commission itemised the details. The Secretary of the PolyU Council explained that the cash allowance had two components: the difference between point 8 and 98% of the salary at point 10 of the directorate pay scale, and housing benefits, amounting to around $30,000 and $130,000 respectively^※. In other words, a "presidential salary" actually stacks three layers: the base pay itself, cash calculated from the differential between pay-scale points, and housing benefits that would otherwise have been provided in kind now converted to cash — which is exactly what the official line about "salary, allowances, contract gratuity, pension contributions, housing benefits and other fringe benefits" looks like in practice.

Gordon Wu Ying-sheung, then Chairman of the PolyU Council, explained that PolyU had been paying the rent, rates, management fees, utility charges and maintenance costs of the President's residence, and argued that replacing housing and leave travel benefits with a cash allowance would actually reduce the University's total expenditure^※; he also remarked that he objected to refurbishing the official residence every time a new president took office. The Director of Audit took a more cautious view, holding that even setting aside the legal question, prudent practice required such arrangements to seek the Council's approval in advance^※. Reading this dispute from two decades ago today, it still carries practical relevance: it shows that behind the figure of the "highest employee salary band" lies a remuneration package assembled from multiple variable items, not a single fixed "annual salary".

HKU's own treatment of housing benefits is worth a separate mention. According to official information HKU provided to the Legislative Council in 2018, 1,006 academic staff received housing allowance in 2017/18, accounting for 59.60% of all academic staff^※. That proportion had held broadly steady between 57% and 60% over the five years since 59.30% in 2013/14 — evidence that housing benefits are not reserved for a tiny group of senior managers, but are a routine component of the remuneration packages of close to 60% of HKU's academic staff.

# What are the median salary scales for HKU professors and lecturers?

Compared with the single, isolated figure of the highest-paid employee, HKU's overall salary structure for academic staff has, in fact, had its own moment of public exposure. On 23 May 2018, the Education Bureau gave a written reply to Legislator Ip Kin-yuen's question on "employment of academic staff by post-secondary institutions"^※; annex VIII, provided by HKU itself, lists the median monthly salary ranges from 2013 to 2017 for three categories of posts: "professoriate grades", "clinical professoriate grades" and "lecturer grades"^※:

Source: Official annex provided by HKU in 2018^※. It should be noted that "professoriate grades" here is a broad grouping; HKU's official document explains that, apart from length of service, the remuneration and fringe benefits of academic staff are determined mainly by individual qualifications and annual performance assessment^※, and the published figures are not broken down further into the three specific ranks of professor, associate professor and assistant professor. This is standard practice at HKU since its 2003 decoupling from the civil service pay scale: the unified pay table no longer exists, the University provides only aggregate medians in response to individual questions, and no official public document sets out the exact pay points for full professors versus assistant professors. This article notes that limitation honestly and will not pass off figures from other institutions or informal sources as HKU's own.

Dividing the end-year figures by the start-year figures in the table reveals a curve that is far smoother than that of the "highest employee salary band": over the five years from 2013 to 2017, the lower bound of the median monthly salary range for professoriate grades rose from $57,735 to $69,895, an increase of about 21%; for lecturer grades, the lower bound rose from $53,200 to $62,850, up about 18%; and the fastest riser was the clinical professoriate grades, whose lower bound climbed from $67,505 to $86,535, an increase of roughly 28% — a figure consistent with the broader environment of the HKU Medical Faculty's expansion and heightened bargaining power of clinical academics amid Hong Kong's healthcare staffing shortage (this percentage is computed by this article directly from the raw figures in the table above; HKU has not separately published any official "percentage increase" figure). All three curves point to the same conclusion: even as the isolated "highest-paid employee" figure bobbed up and down by single-digit percentages over the five academic years, the median salary scale for HKU's professoriate grades as a whole rose by around a fifth over the same period. These are not the same thing, and they should not be read as one.

The same annex also reveals another face of HKU's academic employment structure: in 2017/18, HKU had 1,102 academic staff on contract terms (65.2%) and 587 on substantiated (tenured) terms (34.8%); the share of substantiated posts fell steadily from 36.9% in 2013/14 to 34.8% in 2017/18^※. Read alongside the concurrent rise in professorial median salaries, this curve paints a picture that is not at all contradictory: as the share of contract posts expands year by year, pay at the top continues to climb steadily — the flexibilisation of the salary structure and the rise of top-end pay are two faces of the same round of reform.

# Who, in the end, decides the Vice-Chancellor's pay?

Clarifying the question of "who sets the price" helps explain why HKU's salary figures can only be shown as bands. After the 2003 decoupling, the Secretariat of the University Grants Committee stated plainly that, with university salary structures decoupled from the civil service, the governing bodies of individual institutions could set the pay levels of their presidents and staff themselves, provided they put in place a transparent system of remuneration and benefits conditions with adequate external participation^※. Two decades on, the Education Bureau's written replies still use the same formulation: determining the terms of service, remuneration and dismissal terms of university employees is within the power of the University Council / Court; neither the Government nor the UGC is involved^※.

This means the specific pay of HKU's highest-paid employee has never been set directly by the Government or the UGC; it is decided within the University's own governance structure, and all outsiders can see is the single band — converted and range-capped — in the financial report. The same Education Bureau reply also noted that the prevailing retirement age across the universities is generally 60 or 65, with approval mechanisms for extension of service^※ — in other words, even the question of who the "highest-paid employee" is may change between academic years because of extensions of service, and it is not only the salary figure that shifts.

# Is the "highest-paid employee" the Vice-Chancellor?

Finally, one definitional caveat that is all too easily skipped: no official document has ever stated in so many words that "the highest employee salary band equals the Vice-Chancellor's salary". The header of the annex table reads "the highest employee salary bands reported by UGC-funded universities in their financial statements over the past five years^※". By the ordinary logic of pay structures, the highest-paid employee at a university is, in most cases, indeed the Vice-Chancellor, and many media outlets have drawn the equation outright when citing the figures. But that equivalence is an external inference, not a literal statement in any official document. This article notes that distinction as the record requires, and refrains from speculating about or naming any current office-holder's personal pay — a practice both consistent with this site's general convention and with the boundary set by the official data themselves: what is disclosed is an institutional salary band, not the name and precise figure of any serving individual.

# Further reading

• Who's who at HKU — founders, past Vice-Chancellors and academic leaders: faculty-and-leaders.md
• Tsui Lap-chee — the geneticist who discovered the cystic fibrosis gene and HKU's 14th Vice-Chancellor: tsui-lap-chee-scientist-vc.md
• The balance of UGC grants and tuition — how HKU's "public money + fees" revenue model works: ../08-finances/ugc-funding-and-tuition-model.md
• Finances: ../08-finances/finances.md
• Who runs HKU — the composition of the Council, appointed members, and the Chancellor's (the Chief Executive's) appointment power: ../13-governance-and-reform/council-composition-and-appointment-power.md