CO129-567-12 Hong Kong University 24-1-1938 - 24-1-1938 — Page 57

Report.

Resolutions of Senate and Faculties.

Resolutions of Council.

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25.

The Faculty is at present organized with the three Departments of Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineer- ing--each under its own Professor with his assist- ant staff. We are left with the clear impression that these Departments work disjointedly and we are satisfied that a less elaborate and a less pre- tentious organization will amply meet the present day requirements of the University. Our main conclusions in regard to staffing this Faculty are that a single Professor will suffice instead of the present three; that he will naturally be the Taikoo Professor of Engineering (who need not by Statute necessarily be a Professor of Mechanical Engineering), that he should be ex officio Dean of the Faculty; and that he will be assisted by a staff of Lecturers (partly we would hope recruited from the ablest products of the University itself) who in the various departments would be ade- quate to give instructions on the lines required. These changes when they can be carried out with- out injustice to the present staff would we are convinced result in a better organization and a better discipline throughout the Faculty as well as securing an appreciable economy.

(e) The Senate desires to point out that in- struction in Electrical and Mechanical subjects (including Lectures, Laboratory Experiments, and Workshop) is essential for Civil Engineers, and hence that drastic economies in the depart- ments of electrical and mechanical engineering would place in jeopardy the efficiency and even the stability of the entire Faculty.

The Senate submits that the present level of our Engineering Degrees ought to be maintained, and declares that for this end all the subjects now included in the curricula for Final Examinations in Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering, are essential, and that they ought not to be reduced in scope or standard.

The Senate considers that a reduction of the Senior posts in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (from Professorships to Readerships or Lectureships) on grounds of financial strin- gency if ever carried out should be effected by holding the chairs in abeyance and not by their abolition.

Resolved that the teaching of Engineering in the University be re-organized on the following basis :-

(a) When the posts of Professor of Electrical Engineering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering fall vacant they should be held in abeyance;

(b) In Engineering the University should for the present confine itself to teaching and examining, in its fourth year courses, for a degree in Civil Engineering;

(c) Arrangements should be made with the University of London for the holding in Hong Kong of an Intermediate Ex- amination in Engineering to be taken by students who wish to become Electrical and Mechanical Engineers; and

to

(d) The University should contribute in the form of scholarships to be awarded to China students from

assist such students towards completing in London degree courses in Electrical and Mechan- ical Engineering after passing the Inter- mediate Examination in Hong Kong,

Report.

Resolutions of Senate and Faculties.

સ stage further and

29. We would go suggest that the post-graduate training required should be deliberately provided in the Colony to such students from China in the road making, waterworks and building offices of the Public Works Department without any thought of their subsequent employment in the Colony.

35. We advise that this system should be greatly expanded if this is possible, but this means that there must be constant contact with the English engineering firms and their repre- sentatives in Hong Kong and China. We con- sider that Hong Kong will have done its proper

The

notes Senate

with satisfaction the declaration in paragraph 35 (which appears to negative the strictures of paragraph 32) that

Hong Kong will have done its share by bringing the students as far as graduation This is precisely what the University has been

Resolutions of Council.

and should endeavour to interest the Federation of British Industries China Committee in this scholarship scheme and secure a contribution from them to- wards the training and apprenticeship of such students;

Provided that the elimination of the specialised courses in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering proposed under paragraph (b) should be con- tingent on the implementing paragraphs (c) and (d) and that the University should now recognise that specialised courses in Mechanical and Elec- trical Engineering may be justified at a time when Chinese industry is more developed. (See para- graph 37).

Resolved that the Council gratefully acknow- ledges the assistance given by the Public Works Department of the Colony in the matter of post- graduate apprenticeships, and that Government be asked to institute a cadre of locally appointed assistant Engineers to be recruited in the main from the graduates of Hong Kong University by selection after a period of apprenticeship in the Public Works Department.

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