CO129-625-5 Hong Kong University- establishment fund 1-3-1950 - 31-1-1951 — Page 26

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This capital grant of £250,000 has enabled the University to obtain new equipment and to rehabilitate many of its buildings, but there are still some only partially rehabilitated (e.g. flooring has not been restored) and, conspicuously, the Great Hall is still a roofless shell deteriorating through its continued exposure to the weather. Private benefactions have also assis tod in the capital restoration and development of the University, notably the gift of Sir Robert Ho Tung of 1 million dollars (£62,500) for a new hostel for women students. The local Government, which before the war had contributed less than million dollars annually towards the recurrent income of the University, is now contributing 1 million dollars (93,750). Tuition fees have been increased, in addition to a substantial increase in hostel charges to keep the hostel accounts self- balancing. These two increases in recurrent income do not, however, do much more than compensate for the losses in endowment income and the post-war rise of prices.

6. The University in February-March, 1949, put forward proposals for (a) using the £250,000 promised by His Majesty's Government as a fund, capital and interest on which would be used over a period of 15 years by equal annual drawings to increase the University's general income and (b) capital development schemes (teaching hospital expansion, Architectural department, Education department, men's hall of residence, and staff housing) for which a grant of approximately £250,000 from the Colonial Development and elfare higher education allocation was requested. Decision in London on these proposals was postponed, pending a visit by Inter-University Council representatives. The University had been warned that the Treasury would find it difficult to agree to the funding of the £250,000 in the way proposed, and that commitments had nearly exhausted the Colonial Development and Welfare higher education allocation.

7. During the current session, the Vice-Chancellor invited the members of the Senate to submit minimum development plans which they regarded as essential on academic grounds, without taking into account the question whether or not funds were available. A summary of these coordinated plans, with approximate estimates of costs, is attached. During our visit we discussed these recommendations thoroughly with the heads of departments, with the Deans, the Registrar, the Vice-Chancellor, the Treasurer, and some mumb rs of the Council. In some details we suggested possible modifications and some proposals will be amended after further study and costing. In all essentials, however, we are convinced that these recommendations represent a realistic, carefully considered, and economical scheme for the minimum necessary development of the University in its next phase. are a logical extension of the present activities of the University; they do not involve new departures, but a continued concentration of the chosen limited scope of the existing faculties of Arts, Science, Medicine and (reduced from its pre-war scope) Engineering. They were drawn up without reference to the detailed proposals for academic development made in the Cox Committee report, (which has not been made available to the staff), but are fully in line with those proposals, though in some respects on a somewhat more modest scale. Some are extremely urgent; for example, the congestion in the present science laboratories is such that teaching next session for the increased number of students and the widened spread of courses will be impossible unless further accommodation is available by September.

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