CO129-593-2 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University. For extracted photographs see CN 3-45. Includes 32 photographs depicting-... 10-1-1945 - 20-1-1946 — Page 158

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(a) University with Limited Local Scope.

The requirements

for such a university can be summarised very briefly as:

A Medical School

An Engineering School

A Teachers' Training College

Possibly a School of Agriculture and Forestry, Staff and, where necessary, new buildings to maintain these activities should not constitute more than a moderate charge on local government income. In the event of such an organisation being adopted, it is not the view of the Vice-Chancellor that allowance should be made for training officers for the Straits Settlements, Burma, India, etc. These spheres should provide their own facilities on similar lines at their own expense.

(b) University as an Expression of British Policy towards China

and the Far East. The original terms of the Ordinance, particularly the aim of maintaining a "good understanding with the neighbouring country of China" suggested this wider scope for the University of Hong Kong. To be effective, however, the University must compete in excellence with other educational nstitutions in China and the Far East, e.g., the Peking Union Medical College (of the rockefeller Foundation), the Christian Universities of China (such as Yenching, Cheeloo, Nanking and west China Universities), as well as the leading Universities of the Chinese Ministry of Education, many of which receive notable assistance from American sources.

At the outbreak of the Pacific war the British had little to offset the imposing contribution made by America to education in the Far East. To enable the University of Hong Kong to take worthy stand in the Orient as representative of the' best traditions of British Higher Education would call for an expenditure far beyond Hong Kong's own means, in fact a generous and dependable subsidy from the Home Government. This fact

was recognised in 1940, when both the British Council and the Rhodes Trustees offered some aid to the University.

A university possessed of this wider scope

would need:

(i) New Buildings: the existing ones are, apart from

war damage, out of date, inconvenient and uneconomical. Plans for an entirely new site for the University were already being discussed before the war.

(ii

Absolutely modern equipment.

(iii) A largely increased staff of Teachers, with

proportionately increased living accomodation. (iv) Interchange Staff Arrangements with United

Kingdom and Empire Schools and Universities. Similar arrangements with Chinese Universities. would also be desirable.

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