The Hong Kong University Students’ Union publication Undergrad, founded more than 70 years ago and one of the city’s longest-running campus news outlets, has ceased operations after failing to recruit enough members to form a new editorial board.
In a statement on Sunday, the student union’s 2025 editorial committee said it had twice attempted since last September to recruit members for this year’s board, but in vain.
As a result, the publication stopped operating with immediate effect.
“Today, Undergrad’s historical role in society has come to an end,” said the committee’s statement, which was posted on various social media platforms. “This is not something to lament with sorrow, but simply the natural ebb and flow of history.”
It added that “the times are always calling, and the media of a new era may emerge in ways yet unknown”.
The outgoing committee said that over the decades, Undergrad had “actively promoted discussion on campus and in society while quietly observing and recording the voices of university students”, adding that the publication had taken on different positions and roles in different eras.
Founded in 1952, Undergrad was the only official text and print-based publication of the student union at the University of Hong Kong. Originally an English-language newspaper, it switched to Chinese in 1959, and adopted the name “Hok Jyun”.
Following its closure, the student union’s only operating media outlet is Campus TV.
The publication’s closure comes amid the ongoing shutdown of various student organisations and campus media in Hong Kong.
In 2021, the university severed ties with its student union – the parent body of Undergrad – following a controversial council motion that ended the union’s official recognition.
At the Chinese University of Hong Kong, five college student unions had already announced their dissolution within a year by early January, with leaders citing the institution’s requirement that they register as societies with the police before they could continue operating.
Subsequently, operations were suspended, leaving only two of the university’s nine college student unions still functioning.
Polytechnic University also terminated its relationship with its student union in April 2022 and took back its office and facilities, effectively ceasing its operations.
The union has not elected a new executive committee since then.
