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5.3
relationships with it, and by alumni who value it for its history and for its contribution to their own education, it might have been expected that CNAA would set down conclusions at this point which had a confident overall tone; it is regretted that this has not been found possible. In practice, there would be little purpose in setting down in detail how the present deficiencies at Lingnan might be corrected so that the courses might become comparable with those in the Polytechnic; the basic reason for not proceeding in that way is that, save only for the buildings and the traditions, there is precious little at Lingnan at the post-secondary level on which courses of the required standard could be developed; certainly there is not a problem which mere injection of funds and a guiding hand can solve. The attainment of standards comparable to those of related courses in the Polytechnic could only come about in the long term and with radical changes. Lingnan overall has two deep seated problems; lack of resources and lack of leadership.
Specifically, the College lacks leadership at the level of the President. Some leadership is given by the Deans who try to keep the College's academic programme afloat against near-impossible odds. Their individual and collective efforts are to be commended, but in total this leadership at the second tier is very slender and quite insufficient in present circumstances to lead the College forward.
5.4 The way in which the College actually operates did not
bear very much relation to the constitutional arrangements set out in the documents supplied for the CNAA appraisal. It is probable that the constitution is over-sophisticated for the size of the College, but the deviation between what was set down and what actually happens was found to be so great that it was disingenuous of the senior staff team, and specifically of the President, not to enter a disclaimer to the effect that CNAA was being offered no more than a blueprint, and in many respects a fairly defective blueprint. The only disclaimer put forward was that time for the preparation of the documents had been short.
5.5
Staff mobility is so high because of depressed salaries and an inadequate staff establishment for the course offerings that the balance and quality of the courses is impaired. It seems that in the past year or two the College has found that it has virtually no freedom to select staff; it has to take staff who are in a position to take the posts on the wholly uncompetitive terms offered, and it seemed that this has allowed little or no serious staff selection to take place. A few members of staff are giving substantial service to Lingnan by way of