DRAFT
UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
THE FUTURE OF THE UNIVERSITY.
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In 1939 a Committee appointed by the Chancellor recommended a modest scheme for the development of the University in order that it might more adequately fulfil the purposes for which it was established, namely: to be a centre of British University life not only for the Colony but for the contiguous areas of China. The Committee's recommen- dations were approved by the Goverment of Hong Kong and gained the w pathetic interest of the Colonial Office and the Foreign Office, War osme before most of the changes recommended could be initiated. After the reoccupation of the Colony the same matters were reconsidered by a Committee in London appointed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies. This Committee recommended a still wider scheme of development, which again gained the approval of the Secretary of State for the Colonies and of the Foreign Office, but has had temporarily to be held in suspense, as the present financial conditions in the United Kingdom preclude the grant of any assistance from the British Treasury. But the Secretary of · State for the Colonies agrees with the Government of Hong Kong on the necessity of restoring the University, as rapidly as possible, to its "status and scope of 1940"."
While these matters have been under discussion care for higher educational needs in the Colony have been met by the provision of teaching for men and women to aim at courses leading to degrees in Arts, Science, Civil Engineering and Medicine. The need of the Colony for teachers, civil engineers and doctors is sufficient reason for this attempt to maintain the continuity of training for the professions in Hong Kong. To achieve this end, an Interim Committee was established to organize and conduct essential teaching, and a temporary Provisional Powers Committee was established by Order-in-Council to carry out certain essen- tial functions of the University. The Interim Committee, with full approval of the Provisional Powers Committee, determined that, faced by shortage of staff and destruction of the greater part of the University buildings, laboratories and equipment, it could only reconstruct an institution of University status by building up, as it were, from the bottom, and therefore admitted in 1946 students to first year classes, and in 1947 students to first year and second year classes. So, year by year, the student body of the University (will be re-established. Buildings have been restored as they were required and equipment ordered (mainly in England) has come to hand, but very much more slowly than was hoped, and at greater cost.
The success of these extemporised measures has been such that it is now believed that the time has come formally to restore the University by the re-establishment of its governing authorities. This has been made practicable by a generous decision of the Government of Hong Kong to undertake the greater part of the financial burden of restoring the whole of the University buildings and equipment. The University is, therefore, in a position to assume that by the year 1952, by successive stages, it will be able to do all the work that it was equipped to perform in the year 1940.
As soon as the University authorities have been appointed and are able to meet, measures can be taken to fill vacancies in the staff of the University caused by deaths and retirement. Immediate steps will be taken for the selection of men for the Professorships in Medicine, Surgery, Pathology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and for Lectureships in some of the se subjects. Recruitment of suitable men at this time will be difficult out it is confidently expected that the kind of work that can be offered to men will attract them to the Colony.