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Part III. Scope of the Proposed University.
31. There is one general consideration which affects fundamentally our recommendations for the development of the University. In any university institution it is essential that teaching and research should both play their full part in the programme and that the primary objects should be, the advancement of learning and the education of undergraduate and post- graduate students, We are fully aware that this principle must involve financial commitments of a substantial kind. We are however convinced that the respect of the Chinese people for learning and for high standards of scholarship makes it imperative that this principle should be accepted without reservation in the planning of the revived University of Hong Kong. 32. In attempting in this section of our report to outline the scope of the University, we have kept the proposals for the range of subjects and for staffing to the minimum which we judge to be compatible with this principle. We do not wish to imply that the following suggestions must all be adopted in detail without modification; the University's plans must be adaptable to new opportunities as they arise and flexible enough to develop according to the accidents of the availability of staff of the required standards. We are, however, convinced that only an institution of the general range and resources described below could properly fulfil the policy and purposes of the University which we have recommended in Part II of our report.
FACULTY OF Arts.
33. Our detailed consideration of the position of the Faculty of Arts has led us to the conclusion that there should be as a minimum five Departments varying in size and complexity, each of which should provide for both under- graduate and post-graduate students. These Departments are English Language and Literature, Chinese Language and Literature, Social Sciences, History and Mathematics. In addition to these there should be a Department of Philosophy and one of Geography. In these two Departments we are proposing a somewhat smaller provision for the present. Further there should be a Department of Education organized as a separate unit in the Faculty but in close liaison with the other Departments and with those in the Faculty of Science. In this Department the provision should be specifically for graduates. There should also be opportunity for practical instruction in French, and, at no distant date, adequate provision for the study of Portu- guese, which is still the language of a considerable number of the local population. We are not at present proposing a separate Department of Modern Languages, but we look forward to the time when such a Department will be instituted.
CONCEPTION OF THE FUNCTION OF THE FACULTY OF ARTS.
34. The primary function of the Faculty of Arts would be to train students in the proper disciplines and methods of English and Chinese Languages and Literatures, History, Philosophy, Mathematics and the Social Sciences. Undergrate students in these subjects would prepare for Pass or Honours Degrees in all Departments. It is hoped that several Honours Schools will in fact be inaugurated from the start. The general principle which we suggest for the consideration of the Senate of the University is that in every Department which is headed by a Professor an Honours Course should be con- templated at an early date. In all these Departments it is of great importance that provision should be made for post-graduate study. Research in the strict sense of the term must in the circumstances of the case be more practicable in
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me subjects than in others; in some the necessary materials may for some me be lacking, but even in these the provision of post-graduate courses will be of importance. It is at the post-graduate stage, when students have already received their basic training in the disciplines and methods of their chosen subjects, that work can properly be done of a kind particularly suited to the special purposes of the University. The training of students to under- stand and interpret western civilization and culture, particularly its British variant, to the peoples of the Far East is in our view a major objective of the University. This purpose can be realised only if there are courses where graduates can be encouraged to discuss and study problems which require for their elucidation a considerable background of knowledge.
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH (LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE).
35. The task of the Department of English must necessarily be twofold. Special emphasis would obviously be placed on the training of students in a knowledge of the language, by methods developed in Modern Language Departments in Universities in this country. An effective mastery of spoken and written English should clearly be one of the characteristics of students who have taken a University course at Hong Kong. The use of the latest techniques would be needed for this purpose, and special attention would be necessary to phonetics. Close co-operation with the Department of Education would be a natural development in this connection. The second fundamental object is the introduction of students to a critical appreciation of western civilization and its variants, especially the British, through the study of English Literature. It is only upon the basis of a thorough training in both language and literature that students could be prepared in advanced work. One of the main lines of post-graduate work might appropriately be the comparative study of English and Chinese literary forms. We suggest that one at least of the lecturers in the Department should be a Chinese well-grounded in his own and in English literature.
DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE (LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE).
36. This Department would give Chinese from overseas and some non- Chinese students an elementary training in the Chinese language and an intro- duction to its literature, but its main work would be among Chinese students already well-grounded in this subject. It might also become a research centre for British sinologues, like the Ecole Francaise de l'Extreme Orient, at Hanoi. Useful work might be done on the Chinese dialects and in literary and historical research. It would certainly be surprising if this Department became a greater centre of Chinese studies than those in China itself, but in any case its staff would be essential for the purpose of comparative studies undertaken in conjunction with Departments of English Language and Literature, of Social Sciences and of Philosophy.
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES.
37. In this Department, as in the Department of English, we would emphasize that a thorough grounding of students at the undergraduate stage is essential before the special work which we hope for can be fully developed. We conceive of this special work as the comparative study of the social philosophies and the social institutions of the Far East and the Atlantic areas, especially in their economic and political aspects. For this work studies in Mathematics, Languages, History, Philosophy and Geography are of great importance. Economics in all its aspects is fundamental. Particular attention could appropriately be given to the philosophies and institutions of China, Britain and the British Commonwealth. China has a long history in which
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