Disgraced professor who took HK$40,000 bribe to admit unqualified student jailed

Liu Hongbin accepted bribe to help mainland Chinese student secure conditional offer for place at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

A Hong Kong court has sentenced a former university professor to 20 weeks in jail after he accepted a HK$40,000 (US$5,109) bribe and offered two colleagues red packets to help an unqualified student gain admission to a postgraduate programme, with the judge condemning his actions for tarnishing the city’s reputation.

Liu Hongbin was sentenced on Thursday for abusing his authority as chair professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s (HKUST) department of ocean science to help a mainland Chinese student majoring in automotive service engineering secure a conditional offer for a master’s degree in environmental health and safety between March and May 2025.

The 63-year-old defendant pleaded guilty at Kwun Tong Court earlier this month to one count of conspiracy for a public servant to accept an advantage and two counts of offering an advantage to a public servant.

Defence counsel Dick Wong Chun-man on Thursday urged the court to suspend his client’s jail term, highlighting positive testimonials made by the defendant’s wife, colleagues, students and friends, who described Liu as a selfless and upstanding marine biologist who had devoted his life to research, teaching and public service.

Wong said the case had a devastating impact on Liu’s career. The research team he had worked with for decades had been dismissed and his HK$31 million research project into ways to mitigate climate change through coastal management had collapsed.

The lawyer also said that Liu, who had spent 15 days in custody before sentencing, was willing to cooperate with the Independent Commission Against Corruption to use his case as educational material for other mainland arrivals in the future.