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Centria
PART III
SCOPE OF THE PROPOSED UNIVERSITY
There is one general consideration which affects fundamentally our recommendations for the development of the University.
In any university institution worthy of this name 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 training of undergraduate and post-graduate students.
We are fully aware that this principle must involve financial commitments of a substantial kind, commitments moreever which must seem disproportionately large when the probable number of students is considered. We are however convinced that the respect of the Chinese people for learning and high standards of scholarship makes it imperative that this principle should be fully observed in the planning of the revived University of Hong Kong.
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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. -Creps
3 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 undergraduate 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 Thilosophy 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 with close liaison with the other Departments in arts and Science. In this Department the provision should be specifical ly for post-graduate students. There should also be opportunity for practical instruction in French, and, at no distant date, adequate provision for the study of Portuguess.^ we are not at present proposing a seperate 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.
4 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. Undergraduate students in these subjects Gould 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 contemplated 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 some subjects than in others; in some the necessary materials may for some time be lacking, but even in these the provision of post-graduate
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