Hong Kong universities are currently embroiled in controversy around institutional autonomy, which was sparked by the blocking of the appointment of a pro-democracy scholar to a management post at Hong Kong university. A similar controversy at Lingnan University means that there have been protests on two campuses.

The Chief Executive of Hong Kong serves as the chancellor of all eight publicly funded universities, which gives the city's leader the power to appoint members of university ruling councils. Critics claim that this opens the possibility of political interference in university appointments and therefore institutional autonomy and academic freedom.

Student unions and staff associations are calling for reform, however this article by the South China Morning Post, which also provides good background to this issue, suggests that besides calling for reform, critics need to also propose alternatives. The article mentions how chancellors are appointed in the UK and United States as examples for comparison.