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While the Technical Institute has suffered in several directions from the activity of the University, it continues to perform many useful functions of its own. The Normal Classes ("English" and Vernacular) for men and women, the Shorthand, Mathematics, and English Classes were all well attended, as also were the First Aid Classes.
The Hongkong University is an institution that arose from the joint enterprise of British and Chinese subscribers. It was founded with funds representing about equal proportions of Chinese and British money.
At the end of the year the number of students was 172, 101 of whom were taking Engineering, 37 Medicine and 34 Arts. While most of the students have studied in Hongkong schools, a number came from Canton, the Coast Ports of China and the Straits Settlements.
The idea of the University is to provide, close to China, education for Chinese similar to that given in the British Universities, but at a much cheaper cost; for if a Chinese goes abroad to be educated, he has to pay, besides travelling expenses, some $2,000 per annum; whereas at Hongkong, the expenses of the University are $540 per annum for board and tuition, or, including extras, from $600 to $650.
The founders of the University took into consideration the fact that Chinese students being educated abroad have usually to make their own arrangements for board and lodging. Consequently, sometimes they contract irregular habits. All students educated at the Hongkong University are required to become boarders, and thus their whole lives are under supervision whilst they are there. Ample provision is made for indoor and outdoor recreation, and in this connection, it is interesting to note that the Chinese residents of Hongkong recently subscribed a large sum for levelling a new playing field and that the work has just been completed.
The University is composed of three Faculties: 1.—Medical, which offers unexampled facilities for the practice of medicine. The anatomical laboratories were the gift of a Cantonese gentleman (Mr. Ng Li-hing). There is a large staff of instructors in medicine: all the principal doctors of Hongkong give lectures at the University. 2.—Arts. The establishment of this Faculty was largely due to the munificence of a Chinese gentleman in the Straits Settlements (Mr. Cheung Pat-sze). Its special object is to provide training suitable to those who desire to enter the public service or the higher branches of mercantile life. The course of instruction comprises English and Chinese literature, political and constitutional history, political economy, jurisprudence and international and commercial law.
The largest of the Faculties is that of Engineering, to which nearly two-thirds of the students belong. It is divided into three branches: Civil, Electrical and Mechanical. The University has