This paper examines the relevance of hybridization to the development of higher education (HE) governance in Hong Kong. It begins by briefly reviewing conceptual issues about HE governance. Based on these conceptual elements, an analytical framework is then proposed to understand the institutional balance of power in university systems and the cultural equilibrium in the academia. Afterwards, an overview of the key features of HE governance in Hong Kong is presented. Three controversial incidents involving the individual academic freedom and institutional autonomy of universities that occurred in Hong Kong after 1997 are also studied. Given that these incidents are linked with the social and political changes in postcolonial Hong Kong, the controversial incidents and associated confrontations in the university sector are regarded as signals of an ongoing hybridization process in the city. Such a process indicates a continued East–West cultural divide in the arenas of HE governance and academic culture.
[Copyright © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.]

This article analyses a recent policy change in higher education in Hong Kong to determine the significance of politics in the conceptual understanding of higher education governance. To achieve this objective, the article examines the tension between the global agenda, which is characterised by neoliberal ideology and practices, and local needs, which explain the political interests of governments in higher education policy and justify government intervention in higher education. The article initially delineates neoliberal reforms in the 2000s and subsequently reviews the ideology of governance and the regulatory regime in the Hong Kong higher education system. Then, it analyses the recent policy change. Based on this analysis, the article argues that higher education governance in the city is undergoing a paradigm shift, with which the essence of governance has shifted from managing globalisation to managing the tension embedded in the global-local dynamics of agenda setting in higher education policy.
[Copyright © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.]