EDUCATION
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The university is in the middle of a substantial building programme and the most recent new building, officially opened in October, houses the Engineering Faculty. Other new buildings nearing completion will house the School of Education, the Computer Centre, and the Centre for Media Resources. Academic visitors to the university and a number of postgraduate students can be accommodated at Robert Black College.
Accommodation is provided for a maximum of 20 per cent of undergraduate students in residential halls. To help students with homes where facilities for study are poor or who wish to avoid lengthy travel yet cannot be accommodated in a hall of residence, the university has increased its emphasis on the provision of general amenities over the past few years. These include study and rest rooms, games and music rooms, and restaurant facilities located at two amenities centres. To improve the sports facilities, a new site is being developed - with a grandstand under construction during the year - on reclaimed land at Sandy Bay on the western shore of Hong Kong Island. At the same time, the university's existing sports centre is being redeveloped with the construction of a new indoor sports hall. The Department of Extra-mural Studies offers, though not to degree level, a wide variety of vocational and professional courses and courses of general or cultural interest. Evening classes held at the university, and day and evening courses at its town centre, are attended by nearly 25 000 students each year. At postgraduate level the university offers facilities for both Master's and Doctor's degrees. Master's degrees by coursework are available in a number of subjects and the Master of Philosophy degree is awarded on the basis of research at Master's level. Doctorates are awarded on the basis of research.
With the re-equipping of the university's laboratories under the present development pro- gramme, its Science and Engineering Departments contain the latest teaching equipment. It also has one of the best-equipped libraries in Southeast Asia. The main library accommodates more than 600 000 volumes - including the Fung Ping Shan Chinese Library with its very valuable collection of works in Chinese while some individual faculties have subsidiary library units. The Fung Ping Shan Museum of Chinese Art is attached to the university and is also used as a teaching museum by the Department of Fine Arts. Research projects continue through the Language Centre, the Centre of Asian Studies -- which serves as a focal point for multi-disciplinary research on China, Hong Kong, East Asia and Southeast Asia - and the Centre for Urban Studies and Urban Planning.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
The Chinese University of Hong Kong was inaugurated in 1963 as a federal university in which the principal language of instruction is Chinese. It is a self-governing corporation which draws its income mainly from government grants. The university is composed of three constituent colleges New Asia College (founded in 1949), Chung Chi College (founded in 1951) and United College (founded in 1956). The campus covers more than 110 hectares of land near Sha Tin in the New Territories.
To mark the university's twentieth anniversary, a special congregation was held on the anniversary day, October 17, and a series of lectures was given during the year by four invited speakers of world renown.
The university offers a wide range of undergraduate courses, spanning 35 disciplines in five faculties. Four of these faculties - arts, business administration, science (a five-year work study programme in electronics is also offered) and social science - offer four-year programmes leading to Bachelor degrees. The fifth faculty, the Faculty of Medicine, admitted its first class of students in 1981. The curriculum is a five-year programme with the first two years devoted to pre-clinical studies, followed by three years of clinical work.