Lawmaker Tommy Cheung said on Wednesday that he has asked the Chinese University to pay HK$750,000 to cover the expenses required to introduce a private bill to restructure the university's governing body.

The bill proposes cutting university council membership from 55 to 34 and adding more external representatives. The ratio of external and internal members will be changed to 2:1 from 1:1.

The bill was initiated by Cheung, Bill Tang and Edward Lau, three lawmakers who also sit on the Chinese University Council.

Speaking to reporters in the Legislative Council, Cheung said other universities have paid for similar private bills, and that the proposed revamp is in line with what was suggested by the university's task force on restructuring.

"We believe we are acting on behalf of the Chinese University," he said.

"It doesn't please everybody because everybody wanted to have more say or more share or more seats. But that's understandable. But what we're doing is not against what the Chinese University wanted. They would have done the same thing if they were going to do it themselves. But that will take years for them," he added.