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Chapter VII.
Engineering Faculty.
38. (i) We considered a recent resolution of the University to suspend specialist teaching in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and to concentrate on the training of civil engineers, giving, however, to all engineering students a sound foundation knowledge in these other branches of engineering in its laboratories and well-equipped workshops. To provide a number of electrical and mechanical engineers to meet local requirements, the University has proposed to establish scholar- ships to assist annually one or two students who have passed in Hong Kong the London University Intermediate Examination in Engineering to com- plete their course in London and to undergo an apprenticeship, easily enough arranged in Great Britain but not in Hong Kong.
(ii) We approve the proposed suspension of degree courses in Mechanical and Electrical Engi- neering, but think that if the number of students sufficiently increases, the separate departments in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering should be reconstituted.
39. (i) This increased number of students may be an early consequence of the labours to reconstruct The train- Chinese industry when the war ends. ing centres of electrical engineers in several places in China have been destroyed and the Universities have not now the money to replace destroyed plant, especially at this time when it might again be destroyed. When reconstruction is taken in hand large scale electrical generating plants are projected, as, for example, the Nanking scheme to supply power to towns and villages covering an area of 10,000 square miles.
(ii) Hong Kong University could undertake the training of electrical engineers for the new Additional projects but the cost would be high. staff of one lecturer (Chinese) and one demonstrator, would be needed, at a cost (average) of $5,500 and $3,190, i.e. of $8,690. New equipment would cost £1,000 more than that suggested in paragraph 41 below but no new building would be needed if the
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new laboratories proposed below are built. Arrange- ments for apprenticeships would be necessary and for this purpose the Hong Kong Electric Com- pany, the China Light and Power Company, the Naval Dockyard, the Taikoo and Kowloon Dock- yards, the Railway and the Public Works Depart- It. ment, would have to be invited to co-operate.
is suggested that if we fail to move, our place will be taken by American and German agencies as indeed has so often been the case in the last two decades. The study of Chinese would necessarily be part of any course of training for graduates who are to work in China, especially the study of Chinese technical terminology.
(iii) We recommend that this work be under- taken if the University is asked authoritatively from China for help of this kind.
40. The position in Mechanical Engineering would not be greatly different. If the University were asked to help, the filling of the post now vacant by the appointment of a senior experienced lecturer would probably suffice to enable us to do, in Mechanical Engineering, roughly parallel work with what is here suggested for Electrical Engi- neering.
pay The University might have to experienced man something more than the minimum salary, and therefore we estimate the cost at an average of £800 a year.
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41. (i) We are of opinion that there is a strong case for the completion of the engineering The con- building scheme on Pokfulam Road. struction of a three-storied building would give ac- commodation for Hydraulics, Strength of Materials, Cement testing, Electro-technics, and adequate The present accommodation for drawing offices. these subjects, scattered in parts of the Main Building, is inadequate, extemporized, and un- satisfactory, and much of the equipment is no longer useful.
(ii). The approximate cost of the new building would be about $175,000, and of new equipment for Civil Engineering £1,500, and for Electrical Engineering £600. We recommend provision of both building and equipment.
42. In order to provide for better instruction in surveying, we recommend that Government be
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