EDUCATION
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Lam, adjacent to its teaching hospital, Queen Mary Hospital, and the Faculty of Dentistry 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.
Most undergraduate courses are of three years' duration. Exceptions are the curricula for the Bachelor of Architecture, Bachelor of Dental Surgery, Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees, all lasting for five years, and the Bachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Sciences, which lasts four years. All courses, apart from some in the Department of Chinese, are taught and examined in English. A total of 15 676 candidates competed for 1979 first-year places in the university's 1990 admission exercise.
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 1990, higher degree enrolment constituted about 17 per cent of total student registration. A number of postgraduate diploma and certificate courses are also offered.
Research at the university is active and ongoing, with almost every member of the academic staff engaged in research of some nature. Financial resources for the support of research are provided by the government, private benefactions and private companies. The government, through the University and Polytechnic Grants Committee, has allocated in the 1988-91 triennium to the university nearly 40 per cent of its earmarked research grant open to bids from the five publicly funded tertiary institutions. This amounted to a total of $31.33 million. Research is considered a vital function of the university, and projects undertaken in co-operation with the commercial and industrial sectors of the community, and collaborative research and exchange at international level, are encouraged and sup- ported as far as possible. An Industrial Liaison Office was inaugurated in May 1990 to foster links between the university and industry on a more systematic basis, in order to facilitate the provision of consultative services based on research by the university's academic staff to meet industry's needs. The university also has a number of specialist centres, many of which undertake interdisciplinary studies. The Swire Marine Laboratory at Cape d'Aguilar on the Hong Kong Island, funded with a $12 million donation, was opened formally in November 1990 to become the first centre in the South China Sea region providing facilities for studies in marine biology, particularly in the context of environmental problems in this part of the world. Other research centres include: the Institute of Molecular Biology, the first of its kind in Hong Kong, which provides the territory with the necessary basic and back-up research for its own biotechnology industry; the Centre of Asian Studies, which serves as a focal point for research on China, Hong Kong, East Asia and South-east Asia, the Centre of Urban Studies and Urban Planning; the Kadoorie Agricultural Research Centre, and the Social Sciences Research Centre. In February 1990, the University of Hong Kong Business School and the Poon Kam Kai Institute of Management were set up with a $54 million donation by business- men in Britain and Hong Kong, to enhance management education at the university through degree and executive training programmes, with the objective of developing an internationally-recognised school for research and teaching for executives who are engaged in business with Asian countries.