CO129-594-2 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University. For extracted photographs see CN 3-45- Advisory Committee report 1-7-1946 - 19-8-1946 — Page 97

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(c) Autonomy.

19. Thirdly, the University must continue to be an autonomous institution. The usual and conclusive arguments

for university autonomy need not be repeated. It is sufficient to point out that in addition to these, there are in the particular case of Hong Kong University, the facts that it would not be the university of the Colony in which it is situated so that local governmental control would be peculiarly inappropriate; that it could better survive political changes if it were an independent, self-governing entity; and that it could more successfully fulfil its special mission if it were formally as well as actually to be free from government direction.

(a) The British character of the University.

20. Fourthly 9

the policy governing the resuscitation of the University for its original purpose must rest on an appreciation that that purpose will be achieved by indirect and not by direct means. The Committee does not envisage the University as representing British scholarship by means of popular lectures on British institutions or British thought; such elementary teaching is not the primary function. of a university. It will have its influence by being an institution of British origin and a centre of learning linked to British standards and traditions; it will represent Britain, by providing access to the experience and progress of British science and scholarship and by itself achieving the highest possible standards in its own work, whether that work be related to specifically "British" subjects (such as the appreciation of literature through the stuly of English literature) or not (as in the case of medicine or statistics). In its undergraduate work, bject will be the training of students on standards accepted in the British university world, rather than the teaching of "British" or "Chinese" subjects. Equally, in its postgraduate and research work, it will act as a centre of contact between British and Chinese culture by blique rther than direct methods; it will for example not necessarily limit its research to the study of Chinese philosophy, or to borderland studies like comparative languages or the historical and sociological aspects of Western influence on China. Such studies are certain to arise and should be encouraged at the postgraduate level, but they are incidental to the essence of the contact, which is that British and Chinese scholars will be working in intimate collaboration with the common objectives of advancing knowledge.

(e) Staffing.

21.

Fifthly, as a university it must be open to all regardless of race or religion, and in particul r appointments to, and promotion on, its staff should be open equally by merit to British and Chinese. It is assumed that the main medium of instruction will continue to be English. The proportion of Chinese members of the staff must be expected to rise, but it is most desirable, in view of the special purpose of the University, that there should always be a strong proportion of British (including

/Dominion)

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