CO129-610-2 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University 9-1-1948 - 18-1-1949 — Page 228

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The return to the status of 1940 should mean that development then in progress will be taken up at the point then reached. This means that Honours courses in various subjects within the Faculties of Arts and Science will again be offered from September, 1948, that an increased number of medical students will be admitted and that provision for post- graduate studies in medicine will be made. Provision may have to be made for pre-clinical studies in Dentistry. Training of teachers of English for China can easily be combined with the training of teachers for the schools of the Colony. In place of the degree course in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, which the University in 1939 had decided to relinquish, provision may possibly be made for the training of architects.

The purposes for which the University was founded are not forgotten. It was not merely to be a training ground for the people of the Colony, but was to be a centre from which the light of a distinctively British culture might permeate into South China. Immediately the means for the achievement of this end are not available, though with the good- will of the Colonial Universities Grants Committee a modest provision for development may become available once the University is restored to its pre-war status. The Government has decided that the University must continue, but an inevitable consequence of healthy continuance is growth, not necessarily in numbers, but in maturity and in diversity of activities.] The incentive towards growth will come from within the University and from the desire of the people of Hong Kong that the University should reflect in realms of science and intelligence, the success of the Colony in the realms of trade and industry. The interest of the Colony is shown in the generous measure of immediate help given by the Hong Kong Govemment; help from outside will be the more easily achieved as the result of a demonstration of a local faith in the University's power in the future to serve the needs of the Colony and to aid in the rehabilitation of China.

2nd January, 1948.

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