From Academic Freedom to Patriotic Education? Higher Education in Hong Kong and the United States; 從學術自由到愛國教育？香港與美國的高等教育

Like many jurisdictions, Hong Kong and the United States have constitutional protections for academic freedom and university autonomy. Yet universities in both jurisdictions have experienced significant political interference in recent years. As individuals, American academics still enjoy far greater personal freedoms than their counterparts in Hong Kong. However, at the institutional level, the attacks on university autonomy in the United States may have a greater long-term impact on research and teaching than the security crackdown in Hong Kong. This is partly because American universities have become so dependent on federal funding and because certain segments of the American public no longer trust scientists and other academics. The fact that the United States is still a competitive democracy, albeit a deeply flawed one, also gives the administration of United States President Donald Trump and its supporters a continuing incentive to demonize universities, with reckless disregard for the impact on research and academic excellence. In contrast, now that Hong Kong has been effectively depoliticized and university students can no longer engage in street protests, Beijing has an incentive to act more strategically and to allow Hong Kong’s universities to thrive. 如同許多其他法域，香港與美國的憲法均對學術自由與大學自治提供一定程度的保障。然而，兩地的大學近年均面臨顯著的政治干預。就個人而言，美國的學者仍享有遠高於香港同行的各項自由；但在制度層面上，美國對大學自治的攻擊，從長期觀察，可能對研究與教學造成比香港安全管控更深遠的影響。此一現象部分源於美國大學對聯邦資金的高度依賴，亦來自美國社會中部分群體對科學家與學者的不信任。