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official posts will materially improve matters; and it
appears that the Arts degree is now considered to be little
more than the crowning of Hong Kong's secondary education
for those whose parents can afford it, together with a
certain number from Malaya and the Dutch East Indies.
55. So long as this is frankly recognized, we
consider that there is much to be said for such an ideal.
We would go further and say that an engineer will be a
better engineer and a doctor will be a better doctor by social intercourse during his training with students in a
non-technical Faculty. A virile School of English and a
virile School of Chinese are obvious necessities in a
University such as this. And it is worth recording here
that the Arts Faculty shares with one or both of the
other Faculties the Departments of Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Biology.
56.
Bearing in mind this aspect of the Arts Faculty
being a continuation of the general education provided in
the Colony's secondary schools, we feel strongly that a
closer liaison with the Education Department of the
Government is desirable.
57. The Director of Education is ex officio a member
of the Senate, but, apart from Matriculation standards, it is difficult to see how the Medical and Engineering
Faculties can be his concern. On the other hand if there
is to be a unified general education in the Colony it would seem desirable that he should have a place in the Arts Faculty. The Government Medical Department has, we understand, a representative in the University's Medical
Faculty, so that the principle is not a new one; in the Arts Faculty the justification seems to us even stronger.
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