THE INTER-UNIVERSITY COUNCIL FOR HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE COLONIES
1, GORDON SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.I.
24
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INTERUNIV, LONDON
I.U.C./E.18/50.
1.
VISIT TO UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG, AFRIL, 1950.
REFORT BY DR. B. MOUAT JONES AND MR. W. ADAMS.
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We left London by air on 28th March, arrived in Hong Kong on the evening of the 31st and left on the morning of 18th April. From 18th - 26th April we visited the University of Malaya in Singapore and arrived back in London on the 28th. The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong, Professor L.T. Ride, and his colleagues had arranged an excellent programme for our visit enabling us to see all aspects of the University's activities and allowing ample time for informal and social engagements through which we were able to appreciate the position of the University in the community. We are deeply grateful to Professor Ride and our many hosts in Hong Kong for the delightful hospitality they extended to us, and also to our equally generous and helpful hosts in Singapore, and hope that the Inter-University Council will convey its thanks to them.
2. This report is confined to the main question of financial assistance to the University of Hong Kong, since this was the chief point in the "terms of reference" for the visit and the one on which practical decision is urgent (see letter from Colonial Office to the Inter-University Council of 23rd December, 1949, I.U.C./E.5/50). There were very many other matters which we discussed with the University authorities and with government authorities, some of which may, at the University's desire, be brought before the Inter-University Council later, such as the constitution of the University, the procedure for staff appointments and promotions, the status of the Registrar and Librarian, the system of external examiners, matriculation requirements, the introduction of honours degrees, syllabus proposals, relationship with the teaching hospital, scholarships for engineering students, and the proposed Institute of Far Eastern Studies. Many of these questions can be better discussed after general decisions have been reached about financial assistance.
3. We may say at once that we strongly recommend that substantial financial help from outside the Colony should be given, and that the political, educational and material benefits of such help will be very much enhanced by the promptitude with which it is given. The University, from its foundation in 1911 until the Japanese occupation in 1941, suffered from under- financing; it could not make long-term plans for a balancud development as a centre of research and teaching, but because of its poverty and consequent under-staffing and under-equipment had on several occasions to develop by a series of improvisations and temporary expedients. In 1946, the Secretary of State for the Colonies appointed the Cox committee to advise him "whether or not the University of Hong Kong, as such, should continue to exist and if so the policy which should govern its resuscitation". The main recommendation of this Committee's report, which was later approved in principle by the Inter-University Council (Minutes I.U.C.93/46, 27/47 and 90/47) was:-
"We/