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Other parts of the programme could be met by separate Colonial Development and Welfare schemes as the final detailed plans become ready, but it is important that the University should be informed at once of the size of the grant that will be available for it from the Colonial Development and Welfare higher education allocation so that it can proceed to complete its arrangements.
9.
The need for increasing the recurrent income of the University is as important as that for capital development. In the case of several departments, for example chemistry, a relatively small increase of staff would make possible a greatly increased efficiency, not only in teaching but also by allowing all the staff some free time for research. The existing staff - student ratio imposes so heavy a load of teaching and administration on the senior staff that it prejudices independent work. We do not recommend that the increased income should be found by temporary expedients such as a recurrent grant from Colonial Development and Welfare funds or the spending of the Treasury grant of £250,000 over 15 years. The solution must be more secure than that, namely (a) by an increase of local grants, (b) by increased fees and (c) by endowment.
(a)
(b)
(c)
We were much gratified when we discussed this matter with
the Governor, Sir Alexander Grantham, to learn that he will recommend that the Government should increase its grants by a further 8 million p.a., and that he felt confident that a favourable decision on this could be reached shortly. If this increase is given, it will mean that the Colony government will have increased its annual grant from a pre-war figure of less than 2 million to 82 million, and this is a measure of the strength of local support for the University.
The University has decided to make a further increase in its tuition fees (accompanied by appropriate provision for scholarships to prevent hardship in deserving cases) and estimates that this will produce an additional income of $326,000 p.a.
The existing endowment funds of the University produce an
annual income of about $1 million, that is about 11% of its present income. The value to any University of the freedom given by a large endowment income needs no emphasis; in the particular conditions and political situation in which the University of Hong Kong is placed, the security and the power to preserve its identity which a substantial endowment would provide have a special significance. The maintenance, development and preservation of the University appear to us (for reasons given in paragraph 12 (h) below) to be both a Colonial and an Imperial responsibility, and we suggest that the building up of the endowment fund should be a joint task. We recommend, therefore:
(1)
that His Majesty's Government should initiate a new endowment fund for the University by a con tribution (from funds other than those under the Colonial Development and Welfare Act) of £250,000 on a £ for £ basis against funds raised by the University from other sources and on condition that His Majesty's Government's contribution should be invested in securities outside Hong Kong:
(ii)/