檢討港大管治的三人專責小組早前建議，下放特首擔任校監的權力，不過港大校委會日前通過6名校委的工作小組報告，接納當中的「成立與校監溝通機制」建議，變相否決專責小組的建議。《眾新聞》翻查在專責小組24項建議或評語中，僅12項建議獲接納，6項遭拒絕，工作小組提出6項另行建議。這與2003年檢討港大管治架構時，全面接納建議有極大差別。
在獲全面接納建議中，6名校委組成的工作小組認為，不少建議已實施或跟現時做法無分別，例如校委會不參與大學行政工作，其他建議則被指與教資會早前委託英國利物浦大學前校長Howard Newby做的資助院校管治顧問研究報告重疊，例如研究設關鍵職效指標（KPI）等。這意味全面接納的專責小組建議，僅得：檢討畢業生議會定位、釐清校委會內不同小組架構等，而最有爭議的建議全數被修改或被拒絕接納，例如下放校監權力，則改為成立三個小組，分別與校監溝通委任校委會主席、校委及頒授榮譽學位。
專責小組成員之一、哈佛大學教授柯偉林（William C. Kirby）發表聲明，表示三人小組已基於全球大學管治標準，向港大呈交最好的建議，祝願港大日後事事成功。至於是否同意校委會建議、新建議能否捍衛院校自主，柯偉林未有回應。《眾新聞》亦向專責小組主席、約克大學校監Malcom Grant查詢，但未獲回覆。三人小組另一成員為退休高等法院法官阮雲道。
柯偉林在聲明中指出，三人小組均認為大學成功的要素中，管治一環最為重要，並強調「傑出大學一定要有策略地謀劃，同時盡最大程度隔絕於政治風向」。他表示，大學必須向公眾問責，但傑出大學同時須有學術及行政自主，決定大學自己的路向。
三人小組在報告中建議，港大應公開更多校委會會議文件及會議紀錄，但遭6人工作小組否決。柯偉林不點名在聲明中表示，大學對公開及透明管治「應該要更有自信」。
柯偉林聲明全文：
I was pleased to serve with Sir Malcolm Grant and Mr. Peter Nguyen on our panel to review the governance of the University of Hong Kong. Our aim was first and foremost to ensure the sustained excellence of HKU and its success in its vision to be “Asia’s Global University.”
It was our collective view that of all the things that can make for a great university, governance is chief among them. Great universities need to be both strategic in their planning and insulated to the degree possible from political winds, which, in every country, can at times be destabilizing. Public universities of course must be answerable to the public, but great public universities must also have the intellectual and administrative autonomy to chart their course. And they must have the self-confidence to be open and transparent in their governance.
We have given our best recommendations, based on enduring global standards of university governance, to HKU in its quest to be--as it should be--one of the world’s leading universities. We wish the University every success as it charts its course ahead.
