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A room on the top floor of the Tang Chi Ngong building has now been set aside for the teaching of the subject.
The Department of History.-According to the syllabus of studies prescribed in the Faculty of Arts as set out in the University Calendar, history is a subject which must be taken (i) for the first three years of the Letters and Philosophy Group; (ii) for the first two years of the Social Science Group, and (iii) for the first two years of the General Teachers Group.
It may also be taken during the third year of the General Teachers Group and for the first
two years of the Department of Commerce curriculum. Unfortunately owing to lack of staff-there is only one teacher, the Reader, and he has do all the lecturing and tutorial work-instruction in history can not be provided in the fourth year either of the General Teachers' Course or of the Letters and Philosophy Group.
The new Reader in History remarks that an unavoidable lack of background is a very serious hindrance to an intelligent study of history; that there is also an unfortunate tendency for the students merely to learn their text books by rote.
Tutorials fill an important part in the teaching of this subject. The School of Chinese Studies.-The whole question of the future of this School is now under consideration,
During the year under review the staff included two whole- time readers, one whole-time lecturer, one Chinese translator, teacher in English, a part-time lecturer in Chinese and a librarian.
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The Chinese Library. During the year 1931 nine sets contain- ing 78 volumes were presented to the Library. There were 937 sets in 31,122 volumes as against 928 sets in 31,044 volumes in the previous year.
The Chinese Society.-The Chinese Society is reported as having had a very successful year. Among those who addressed. the Society was H.E. Tye Chi Tao, President of the Examination Yuan of the National Government of Nanking; and Dr. Choy Yuan Pei, formerly Chancellor of the Peking University.
The Department of Mathematics.-Lectures in mathematics are attended by students in the Faculties of Arts and Engineering. During 1931 the total number of students in the Depart- ment of Mathematics was 98. The entire staff of the Depart-
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ment still consists of the Professor only, who has in his hands all the mathematics of the University, both pure and applied, for the Faculty of Arts and for the Faculty of Engineering. Until a full-time assistant is appointed, the introduction of additional courses, long in demand, for 4th year students in the Arts Faculty and for 3rd and 4th year students in the Engineering Faculty, must remain wholly impracticable.
The Department of Physics.-The staff consists of a professor, a lecturer and a demonstrator.
The lectures in physics are attended by undergraduates drawn from all the three Faculties. Medical students take the first year physics course, whilst students from the Engineering Faculty take both the first and the second year courses. Ad- vanced courses in physics form part of the group of studies in the Faculty of Arts designed for the training of teachers of mathematics and science. The Experimental Science Group of the Arts Faculty provides for the study of physics throughout its four years curriculum. During 1931 there 107 students in the Physics Department. Of these 33 were medical students, and 62 engineering students, the balance, 12, being students of the Arts Faculty; but of these 12 only 2 were taking a third year course and only one a fourth year
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course.
The Professor remarks that the general average attainment was satisfactory, but that limited space and lack of equipment make it necessary to restrict the second year class to about 26 and that engineering students taking the second year course in 1931 numbered 23. If this class is to be increased, its efficient handling will involve dividing up the class, which with the
limited present staff and the heavy time-tables would be difficult to arrange. It is on the other hand undesirable to restrict the second year class to engineering students, for it is from Group 2 of the Faculty of Arts (the Experimental Science Group) that advanced students in physics must be drawn. The institution of post-graduate work in physics-a most desirable development-depends in fact on the encouragement of the Experimental Science Group.
The Department of Chemistry.-The staff consists of a pro- fessor, a lecturer, a demonstrator and an honorary demon-
strator.
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