12
EDUCATION AT THE CROSSROADS
greater emphasis has been placed on a more adequate provision of higher education. On higher education, the White Paper specifically recommended that the approved expansion programmes for tertiary education be achieved partly through the post-secondary colleges, to which financial assistance would be provided, and that the number of students taking degree courses should be increased by an expansion of the two universities, by the introduction of part-time degrees at the universities and subject to the advice of the University and Polytechnic Grants Committee (UPGC) – by a limited degree programme at the Hong Kong Polytechnic.
Shortly after the publication of this White Paper, a Committee to Review Post Secondary and Technical Education was appointed by the government to advise on, among other things, the adequacy of the present pattern and range of institutional provision for post-secondary education as well as on the current and projected educational training needs at different levels including university education, teacher education, vocational, profes- sional and technical education. It was also to advise on policy options relating to the expansion of existing institutions, the creation of new institutions and the use of distance learning. The committee submitted its report to the Governor in June 1981. Many of its recommendations have since been adopted and are being put into practice.
At the first degree level, for example, the two universities have been expanding their student population at four per cent a year compound since 1981, as opposed to the three per cent growth stipulated in the 1978 White Paper. In approving this rate of expansion, the government recognised the importance of striking a proper balance between courses at different levels of the education system in Hong Kong, so that the education structure could meet the range of employment opportunities and the aptitudes of the students. Recognising the serious manpower shortage in certain areas, the government has asked the universities to provide, on a temporary basis until the end of the 1988 triennium, additional places in such areas as medicine, law, social work, accountancy, economics and business studies, computing science, architecture and building, and engineering, over and above the four per cent annual expansion target. In order not to affect the normal development of the universities, these additional places will lapse after the 1988 triennium when the universities will revert to the normal four per cent annual growth rate. At the approved rate of expansion, the two universities combined would have a student population of 15 000 by the end of the 1985-8 triennium - 8 000 at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and 7 000 at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).
In 1982, only two per cent of the 17-20 age group in Hong Kong was provided with first-year first degree places, compared with about five per cent in Singapore and 10 per cent in Britain. This was subsequently increased in Hong Kong to 2.8 per cent in 1983. The present government policy is to increase the provision of first-year first degree places to six per cent by 1989–90 (5 200 places) and to eight per cent by 1994–5 (7 000 places increasing to 8 000 places by 2001-2). To meet these targets, the government has asked the UPGC to examine the possibility of further expanding the two universities. Nevertheless it should be noted that the universities cannot expand indefinitely because of such inhibiting factors as space, staffing and other problems.
Dental School
A milestone in the history of the HKU was the establishment of a dental school in 1980. A total of 76 students was admitted in the same year to its pre-clinical course. These students, together with those admitted in the following year, are now being given clinical training in the purpose-built Prince Philip Dental Hospital under the management of a statutory board.