XN000022-1976-03-16 — Page 10

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There have been great changes since this University was founded.

The University itself has steadily expanded in size, the community of Hong

Kong which it serves has also not only become bigger and internationally

more important, it has also changed its economic characteristics, offering

ever wider opportunities for the application of the professional and

social sciences as well as managerial skills of the highest order.

Though it has not yet been decided what the rate of expansion

of this University will be in the next quadrennium, further expansion there

will certainly be and this will include a second medical school. Such

a school will meet both the obvious needs of the community, and also the

wish of the University to give a heavier weighting to the professional

faculties. These developments have been and will be great indeed, but

even the environment of the University will also change and within a

measurable time it will be on the edge of a new township of 500,000 in

which will be its own teaching hospital.

The University has now existed for more than a decade, and with

changes of such a scale in the University itself and in the community having

already taken place, and with the prospect of more change to come, it is

right and natural that the University should, as it is doing, take stock

of the past and plan vigorously for the future so that both technically

and organizationally it may be equipped for the tasks ahead.

New efforts will be required to meet the heavy demands of our rapidly

developing city and to enable our young people to make, as they wish, an

ever increasing contribution to it. In these efforts both the existing

staff, who have already done so much, and those yet to come in the future,

will have many great opportunities. I am confident that our University will

rise to these new challenges in the way its benefactors and the whole

community expect.