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EDUCATION
New academic developments are undertaken in close consultation with the University and Polytechnic Grants Committee, as well as with relevant government departments and other agencies, such as the Education and Manpower Branch of the Government Secretariat, the Environmental Protection Department, the Social Welfare Department, and the Industry Development Board. Close contact enables the university to plan new initiatives in direct response to specific community and manpower needs. A new De- partment of Speech and Hearing Sciences, which had its first intake in September 1988, represents one such response, as well as new curricula in Environmental Management, and Environmental Science and Engineering, which will help to provide professional personnel in these fields in Hong Kong.
To keep pace with academic developments and increasing student numbers, the univer- sity is undergoing substantial physical redevelopment. A 20-storey academic building on the main estate has just been completed, while work to expand the main library is underway and due for completion by 1990–1.
Hostel places are provided by the university for about 25 per cent of undergraduate students. There are seven residential halls, and two non-residential halls. Two additional 400-place halls of residence are planned, plus a 150-place hall for ‘on-call' clinical students. A number of postgraduate students and academic visitors to the university can be housed in the Robert Black College on the main estate. Three student amenities centres provide study, recreational and restaurant facilities for those students who are unable to obtain a place in a hall of residence.
The University Main Library, with its collection of over 880 000 printed volumes, is one of the best equipped in Southeast Asia, and includes a unique and invaluable collection of Chinese works. There are other specialist libraries located in the Faculties of Dentistry, Education, Law, Medicine and Music. The university also has its own publisher and bindery. The Fung Ping Shan Museum, situated in Bonham Road, is a University Museum which is open to the public on weekdays. The museum's collections are chiefly Chinese paintings, ceramics and bronzes, dating back to the third millenium BC.
Apart from the regular student enrolment, the university offers about 1 200 courses to some further 33 000 students each year, through its Department of Extra-Mural Studies. While the department teaches a considerable number of courses in the liberal arts, the main thrust of its programmes is in the direction of education at a high level. Most of the students attend courses at the end of the working day, almost entirely on university prem- ises either in the Extra-Mural Studies Town Centre in Central District, or else at the university campus.
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Graduate Teachers
The training of graduate teachers for secondary schools is undertaken by the Faculty of Education at Hong Kong University and the School of Education of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
In University of Hong Kong, 134 students were enrolled in the one-year full-time Postgraduate Certificate in Education, and 748 students in the two year in-service pro- gramme in 1987-8. For the further professional and academic development of teachers, the faculty offers Advanced Diploma and M Ed programmes by coursework and dissertation in a variety of curriculum areas. The Advanced Diploma electives offered were Language Teaching (20 students), Educational Administration (20 students), Education Evaluation (15 students), and in the M Ed the electives were Curriculum Studies in Science (13 students), and Curriculum Studies in Social Sciences (9 students). Partly as a result