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Report.
69. After careful consideration we have come to the conclusion that the scale of salaries recommended in the Gollan Report of 1929 was needlessly high.
Resolutions of Senate and Faculties.
The Senate resolved:-
(a) That it does not agree with the Com- mittee's conclusion that the scale of salaries recommended in the Gollan Report of 1929 was needlessly high.
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(b) That it should be remembered, in assess- ing the adequacy of the Gollan scales, that the Commission which recommended these scales also recommended, with the same back- ground of local conditions, scales now in force for Government officers.
(c) That, whereas in dismissing, as needless- iy high, the salaries recommended in the Gollan Report of 1929, the committee considered (1) cost of living in Hong Kong, (2) standard of living which it is desirable for a University staff to maintain, and (3) problems of recruiting; nevertheless there is another factor specially in- dicated in the Gollan Report which should also be considered: namely, as stated in that Report, The University must offer not only a salary which will enable a member of the teaching staff to live in reasonable comfort, but also the prospect of an adequate income on retirement
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(d) That the proposals put forward in para- graph 74 of the Report by the University Com- mittee (1937) fall short of meeting these requirements, especially as regards provision for retirement in the case of members of the staff who joined before 1930.
(e) That the present superannuation scheme, even if supplemented by savings, which in the existing circumstances are difficult to effect, does
Resolutions of Council.
Resolved that the Council would favour an experiment towards recruiting professors and lec- turers for appointments hereafter to be filled on the following scales:
Professors
Readers
Lecturers
Junior Lecturer in Eng- lish (three year ap- pointments)
£1,000—25-£1,250
£ 700-25-£1,000 £ 550-25-£ 850
£ 500-20-£ 540
provided that the Provident Fund provision be amended so that a man recruited at about 30 to a professorship might retire at the age of 55 with a sum of not less than £10,000 to his credit in the Provident Fund.
In connexion with the above basic salary scales the question was raised whether there would be any elasticity in their application. The meet- ing was in general agreement with the position that if a man of exceptional qualification or ex- perience should offer for a vacancy he might be recruited on a salary commencing at some point in the approved scale above the commencing salary, but that his salary should not ultimately exceed that of the maximum on the approved scale.
Resolutions of Council.
Report.
71. The following particulars of remunera- tion in Universities in Great Britain are of in- terest and give the average salary for the various grades:-
Professors
Total number in Great Britain. 842
Average Salary. £1,094 etc.
73.
Further it is perhaps justifiable to point out that Hong Kong does not obtain and, in fact, does not require the University pro- fessor of such exceptional academic attainments as might claim emoluments on the scale paid for the leading professorial posts in the United Kingdom.
Resolutions of Senate and Faculties.
not provide for retirement or support of depend- ents on a scale at all comparable with the provi- sion that is made for public servants in the Colony,
(a) That the Senate points out with regard to the figures offered for comparison from Univer- sity salaries at Home, that under pressure from His Majesty's Treasury Commissioners the policy of regarding £1,000 per annum as a minimum for all professorial: posts is now accepted in Great Britain.
(b) That the comparison between University salaries at Home and in Hong Kong is rendered misleading by the fact that the Committee here omits to take account of the recognized principle of expatriation allowance.
(c) That the real question at issue is the appropriate amount of such allowance.
(d) That a due measure of what is appro- priate can be obtained by a comparison of repre- sentative salaries in governmental, professional, business and other employment in Hong Kong with analogous salaries at Home.
That the Senate is unable to understand the intention of the concluding sentence in para. 73 and feels bound to point out that it must inevit- ably give offence and become a most effective deterrent to satisfactory recruiting.
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