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There have been great changes since this University was founded.
The University itself has steadily expanded in size, the community of Hong
Kong which it serves has also not only become bigger and internationally
more important, it has also changed its economic characteristics, offering
ever wider opportunities for the application of the professional and
social sciences as well as managerial skills of the highest order.
Though it has not yet been decided what the rate of expansion
of this University will be in the next quadrennium, further expansion there
will certainly be and this will include a second medical school. Such
a school will meet both the obvious needs of the community, and also the
wish of the University to give a heavier weighting to the professional
faculties. These developments have been and will be great indeed, but
even the environment of the University will also change and within a
measurable time it will be on the edge of a new township of 500,000 in
which will be its own teaching hospital.
The University has now existed for more than a decade, and with
changes of such a scale in the University itself and in the community having
already taken place, and with the prospect of more change to come, it is
right and natural that the University should, as it is doing, take stock
of the past and plan vigorously for the future so that both technically
and organizationally it may be equipped for the tasks ahead.
New efforts will be required to meet the heavy demands of our rapidly
developing city and to enable our young people to make, as they wish, an
ever increasing contribution to it. In these efforts both the existing
staff, who have already done so much, and those yet to come in the future,
will have many great opportunities. I am confident that our University will
rise to these new challenges in the way its benefactors and the whole
community expect.