Hong Kong’s pursuit of top university rankings comes at a cost

Wanxin Li is a visiting professor at the School of Public Policy Management, Tsinghua University, and an adjunct associate professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The latest rankings confirm what many in Hong Kong already know: the city’s universities are exceptional. Five institutions continue to sit among the world’s top 100, reflecting decades of investment, academic ambition and hard work.

Yet behind the rankings triumph lies a question that receives far less attention: what happens to the people responsible for that success?

As universities compete ever harder for rankings, grants and prestige, academics face growing pressure to produce results on ever-shorter timelines. If Hong Kong wants to sustain its success, it must look beyond rankings and ask if the risks and rewards of academic achievement are being shared fairly.

Academic excellence is a collective accomplishment. Outstanding teaching emerges from interactions between professors and students. Research breakthroughs depend not only on scholars, but also on research teams, university support, funding agencies, community partners and society at large. When a university rises in the rankings, it is the product of an entire ecosystem.