Rock & A Hard Place

"The repair cost for the trashed PolyU campus is HK$700 million"

Hong Kong parents are in a bind. The chatter is they want to avoid sending their kids to the over-politicised local campuses, but opting to ship them overseas has other hazards. The shambolic handling of Covid-19 in the USA and the UK, the two favoured locations for higher education, make this a high-risk option.

That, coupled with the rising anti-Chinese sentiment. Do you want the kids facing Covid-19 in a place that's floundering and with the threat of racial aggression? Tough call.

Are things that bad on local campuses? Speaking to a group of students, I'm told the radical elements are in the soft degrees — the social sciences, and 'grievance studies'. No surprise there.

The suggestion is that students tackling hard science subjects are less prone to political activism. Maybe, having less free time is a factor. After all, getting a place on courses for medicine, chemistry, maths, and physics remains challenging, as it should be. Also, it's argued that the focus needed for these courses tends to produce students with a realistic outlook.

What is certain is that last year's troubles lost Hong Kong's universities, both friends and influence. In government circles, it's deemed that academics are on the 'wrong side' of the struggle. It hasn't gone unnoticed that deans lost control of their campuses, which became bases for the rioters. At least one dean did a disappearing act in an abrogation of his duties.

The images of rioters training on the PolyU and ChineseU campuses sent a chill through society. When the Police took back PolyU, they discovered over 4000 petrol bombs and other weapons. Granted, some of those present may not have been students, yet the terrible optics did the damage.

As a consequence, as the new term begins, stories abound that potential students are declining offers. Depending on who you believe, this is because of the NSL or parents opting to keep their kids away. How the NSL would impact a course choice is beyond me. If anything, the NSL has provided a welcome circuit-breaker to calm the situation.

Meanwhile, universities need to tackle several significant challenges. Covid-19 is pushing learning online, with demands for fee reductions as aggrieved students claim they are not getting the full college experience. Then there is the matter of paying for the damage done to campuses by the rioters.

The repair cost for the trashed PolyU campus is HK$700 million. ChineseU got off lighter at HK$70 million. In the end, I suspect the taxpayer will cover the cost, one way or another. What is surprising is no one is holding the deans to account for their manifest failures. We all saw that as trouble developed on campuses, they stood-by or gave tacit support. Few intervened to assert any control.

Of course, the opposition politicians sought to normalise the smashing of campuses as laudable political protest. In their world, all the blame rests on the government and the Police. Along the way they've rewritten history and spun falsehoods, to portray rioters as brave warriors. But that's another story.

As Hong Kong re-structured in the 1990s for the 'knowledge economy,' our civic leaders saw 'higher education' for the masses as the way forward. In the UK, Tony Blair trumpeted the same message with his mantra of 'education, education, education'. Yet, as is now recognised, going to university was over-sold for some because it produced unrealistic expectations. Those fancy jobs with premium pay and rapid career advancement didn't fall into laps. Then, again, that's not unique to Hong Kong.

As degrees became ubiquitous, a cycle of qualification inflation took hold. Many degrees in the 'soft subjects' are proving worthless. I have to ask, did students expect a degree in 'film studies' and 'the liberal arts' would land them a top job? Well, yes they did because we told them it would.

The logical endpoint is over-qualified, resentful people in retail, call-centres and crappy management roles. Which begs the question, would these kids be better off learning a trade? Yes. Much better off than attending bloated second-rate universities.

Two years ago, I interviewed hundreds of Hong Kong graduates for management roles in the aviation sector. A number had a high opinion of themselves, with a sense of entitlement on show. They equally displayed a poor comprehension of the commitment needed in the modern workplace. With blunt honesty, some revealed themselves unwilling to consider shift work.

Meanwhile, business friends tell me that Mainland graduates show a 'hunger' to get on. Thus, the thesis goes the Mainlanders displace locals graduates in the demanding roles that lead to senior positions. I have no data to support this assertion, but, as the saying goes, perception is reality. One must wonder how much this contributed to the violence of last year, as resentment built amongst local graduates.

Coupled to this is a hard truth. Hong Kong is a service centre for China. Our 'parasite economy' thrives because the Mainland is structurally different. Should China ever become an open economy in the Western sense, then Hong Kong's importance wanes. Graduates, who are willing to acknowledge this situation, and seize the opportunity, will in all likelihood prosper. Those who oppose and fight the system curtail their career options.

Employers are mindful of this reality. Before Covid-19 cut cross-boundary travel, prospective hires could face a second interview in Shenzhen. This simple step tested the willingness of graduates to cross to the Mainland and engage on that ground.

No doubt, employers with Mainland interests are wary of employing anyone who played a role in the protests for fear of a backlash. One student told me a friend spent hours wiping his social media of 'protest-related' material before an interview with a bank. He then faced questions about the gaps.

The tale sounded apocryphal. Yet, that the young man took the effort to tell me the story revealed his worries. The absence of a social media footprint can be as suspicious as any content. Also, don't forget that background checks have never been more straightforward thanks to Facebook, Twitter and the like.

These platforms and online activism will continue to haunt a generation that put its militant rantings out there. I feel lucky that my cohort had the benefit of fading memories as we explored the boundaries and pushed against their limits. Time has eroded the evidence, something the internet doesn't do.

​Kids these days would do well to remember Bob Dylan's sage words "And don't speak too soon. For the wheel's still in spin. And there's no tellin' who that it's namin."