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occasion like the present was not likely to recur, at which a fundamental decision could be taken de termining the nature and existence of the University. The Committee further realized that it could recommend continuation only if the University could serve purposes that were fully sufficient to justify the expense and great effort involved. The Committee also decided that a recommendation to reopen the University would mean its permanent, or at least indefinite continuation, since a temporary extension of its existence for a limited period was not a practical possibility.
COLONY'S REQUIREMENTS INSUFFICIENT TO JUSTIFY A UNIVERSITY
4.
The Committee considered whether the higher education needs of Hong Kong itself would justify the reopening of the Univeristy. On the criterion of the appropriate area to be served by a university, suggested by the Asquith Commission (Cmd. 6647, page 13), namely capacity to supply an adequate flow of students able to profit from higher education, the Committee judged that, at present, and in any predictable future, the conditions of Hong Kong by themselves did not justify a university. On the basis of the quantitative test of the local needs for, or capacity to absorb the products of, રી univeristy, the Committee also judged that the Colony itself did not require the restoration of the University. The Colony's needs of teachers, doctors and other professional specialists could be met by less expensive means by a college of medicine, training colleges, and technical institutions, combined with a scheme of scholarships to universities overseas for a number of selected students.
NEEDS OF OVERSEAS CHIN SE ALSO INSUFFICIENT
5.
An analysis of student registrations in the period 1928-38 showed that about 40 per cent. of the Chinese students came from overseas, particularly from Malaya. The Committes considered therefore whether it would be justifiable to restore the University to continue to serve the needs of these overseas Chinese. The evidence before the Committee suggested that though the re was a strong influence in the Chinese family organization in favour of the formative years being spent in China, (or at least in a Chinese environment), the majority of these students came to Hong Kong because of the absence or limitation of facilities for higher education in their places of origin, because the University provided the opportunity of obtaining a degree instead of a local diploma (as for example in the case of the College of Medicine, Singapore) or because their lack of Mandarin made it lifficult for them to attend the universities in China. The Committes reached the conclusion that if easily accessible alternative facilities of university education became available the numbers of these overseas students would decline. It was understood that the recommendations of the McLean Commission, endorsed by the Asquith Commission, that the ra should be a University College, and ultimately a full University in Malaya would almost certainly be implemented. The Committee decided that it would be uneconomical and short- sighted to restore the University of Hong Kong in order to meet a probably temporary demand from Malaya, with the risk of pre judicing the development of the Malayan University in the interim period and confronting the University of Hong Kong later with the crisis of discovering a new justification for its
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