This paper aims to explain the path of higher education development and governance in (post-colonial) Hong Kong in light of the concept of hybridity. The paper begins with a historical review, delineating the establishment of major universities in Hong Kong, thereby illustrating how hybridity informs the trajectory of higher education development in the city. Considering the tensions and conflicts that emerged during the post-colonial transition and underlining the influences of managerialism and political activism, the paper draws on data from interviews with university council members and student leaders to outline the issues on university governance in Hong Kong. This paper argues that the response of the Chinese central government to the social unrest in the city represents a re-Sinification process that redefines the idea of the university in postcolonial Hong Kong. © 2023 The Author(s).

Reflecting on a personal experience of 'pre-professional' university education and reluctant engagement with Cultural Studies as an academic project, this article examines the now ambiguous role of undergraduate education under neo-liberal management regimes. Arguing that a 'new class politics in knowledge' is emerging with the transnational policy-sharing and international student exchange schemes with which diverse governmental cultures are responding to globalization, Morris suggests that the undergraduate classroom is becoming a 'frontier' of struggle over the future. Teaching cultural studies to undergraduates in a liberal arts environment is one way in which the discipline's emphasis on local knowledge can be put to institutionally creative uses.
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