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EDUCATION
Two-year part-time in-service courses of training for teachers of children with special educational needs were operated by the Sir Robert Black College of Education. Short courses, seminars, and workshops as well as refresher courses were frequently held by the Special Education Section to enhance the professional knowledge of staff in the special education field.
Post-Secondary Education
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There are two approved post-secondary colleges registered under the Post Secondary Colleges Ordinance. They are Hong Kong Shue Yan College and Lingnan College. The Hong Kong Shue Yan College, registered in 1976, has three faculties Arts, Social Science and Business with 13 departments offering day and evening courses with a total enrolment of 4 059 students. It operates a four-year diploma programme without government financial assistance. Lingnan College, registered in October 1978, has three faculties Arts, Business and Social Science - and an enrolment of 1 367 students. It offers two-year Secondary 6 courses and a two-year Post-Secondary 6 higher diploma course, for which it receives government financial assistance. It also offers a fifth-year course leading to an honours diploma for students who successfully complete the higher diploma course.
Students of the two-year post-Secondary 6 courses at Lingnan College are eligible for grants and loans, the maximum levels for which were revised to $3,700 and $4,400 per annum respectively in the 1987-8 academic year. Loans up to a maximum of $8,000 per annum were available to students in the fifth-year course at Lingnan College and to students in the four-year course at Shue Yan College.
University of Hong Kong
The University of Hong Kong, situated on the slopes above the Western District of Hong Kong Island, is the oldest tertiary education institution in Hong Kong. Established in 1911 and originally housed in just one building, the university has grown to its present size of 8 500 students, and now occupies an additional two sites: the Faculty of Medicine is situated in Pok Fu Lam, adjacent to its teaching hospital, Queen Mary Hospital, and the Faculty of Dentistry is housed in the Prince Philip Dental Hospital at Sai Ying Pun.
The structure of the degrees and the governance of the university are based mainly on the British system. The university has nine faculties: Arts, Architecture, Dentistry, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Science and Social Sciences. Each faculty teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate courses, with the exception of the Faculty of Education, which at present teaches postgraduates only.
Most undergraduate courses are of three years' duration. Exceptions are the curricula for the Bachelor of Architecture, Bachelor of Dental Surgery, and Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees, which last for five years. All courses, apart from some in the Department of Chinese, are taught and examined in English.
The university offers three kinds of higher degree, two of which, the Master of Philosophy and the Doctor of Philosophy, are awarded on the basis of original research. Another Master's degree is obtainable by coursework. In 1987, higher degree enrolment constituted about 11 per cent of total student registration.
Research at the university is active and ongoing, with almost every member of the academic staff engaged in research of some nature. Funds for the support of research are limited, but the main financial sources are the government, private benefactions and private