HONG KONG -- A UFO group in Hong Kong has condemned the city's largest university for cancelling a course on ufology because, it said, of faculty objections to the subject.

The course was set to begin last September as an optional subject for University of Hong Kong students in a joint project between the university and the Hong Kong Institute of Ufology, local newspaper Apple Daily reported Monday.

The course was delayed and discussions were held on offering it at a later date after some academics expressed reservations about its content, Moon Fong, a committee member of the institute, told Agence France-Presse.

"Some members of the university's science faculty were concerned that the course would present only the views of the UFO experts," Fong said.

"But we believed that they were just worried about the possibility of ufology becoming a mainstream discipline at the university," she said.

Fong said her institute was disappointed to see the course dropped and said it amounted to a suppression of ufologists, which she said was a common problem at academic institutions overseas.

However, Albert Chau, the university's director of general education, said the cancellation had not been caused by any form of pressure from other faculties.

"Some colleagues suggested that there were different ways to look at the subject. We decided that the suggestion was a good one and that there was a need to reorganize the course," he said.

Chau said that they were still holding discussions with the institute on the course. But he added that he was not sure when or in what form the course would be offered to the university's students.