CO129-576-5 Hong Kong University 13-6-1939 - 23-11-1939 — Page 93

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Extract from Conf. Letter of 17/6/39 to the 5/s 12 from the chimen. Member of the Malayan Higher Education Commission

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it is nevertheless of great importance to him to have as Officers of the Council men who feel that they have

something to contribute to the problen.

8. We now turn to discuss a subject of some

importance reference to which we did not think it wise

to include in the Report itself. From the outset of

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our taking evidence in London, we bore in mind the

existence of the University at Hong Kong and the

possibility of collaboration between Singapore and

Hong Kong in University education, leading perhaps to

the establishment of a British University of the Far

Best. Experience in this country convinces some who

are concerned with the Universities that there has

heen loss of efficiency and sometimes an inadequate

return for considerable expenditure of money because

edjacent Universities have tended too much to compete

and too little to collaborate in providing facilities for the study of different subjects. A strong caso could be presented to prove that the development of active and well staffed departmento in particular

subjects or groups of subjects at Singapore or Hong Kong is more desirable than the duplication of poorly staffed and less efficient departments. Leaving aside all the other important considerations and looking at this question only from the point of view of university development, such a policy of co-ordinated growth 18, in our opinion, preferable to the building up of

Individual institutions catering for all subjects in

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