TNAG-0658-FCO40-807-Policy-of-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-1977 — Page 132

C.S. 166

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機密

(b)

(c)

- 5

XCC(76)51

population were to increase markedly beyond its present figure (paragraph 33). At the Polytechnic a commitment has already been made to proceed with Phase II of the capital development programme; the next major development, Phase III, on which no commitment has yet been made, is designed to raise full-time equivalent student numbers to over 16, 000, including evening students (paragraph 35).

HKU and the Polytechnic are more capable of manag- ing the academic and administrative problems arising from a high rate of growth than is CUHK, where it is desirable that the University should be able to see through the implementation of the changes recommend- ed in the Fulton Report without having to cope with the additional problems arising from a high rate of expansion (paragraphs 36-38).

Unit costs per graduate are approximately 30% more expensive at CUHK than at HKU (paragraph 39).

Recommendations

13

The Working Party recommended that the combined student population at the universities should be 10, 330 by the academic year 1980-81, which would represent an annual growth rate of a little over 5% from the 1977-78 target of 8, 850. It suggested that two thirds of this growth should take place at HKU, which would have an annual growth rate of 7%, taking its student population to about 5, 450 in 1980-81, leaving CUHK to grow at 33% to about 4, 880 in 1980-81. These targets include all categories of students except extra-mural students, taking account of the establishment of the Dental School at HKU and the Medical School at CUHK. Growth at the Polytechnic would be designed to achieve the optimum usage of the accommodation pro- vided by Phases I and II. This would indicate a student population of 12,000 full-time and equivalent (including evening students) by 1981-82, an annual growth rate of 5% above the 1977-78 planning target.

14

The proposed planning targets may seem to be reasonable when related to the expected demand for higher education places from qualified applicants but they may seem to be too high when set against the anticipated growth in employment opportunities for graduates. They do however represent a sizeable reduction in the rate of growth as compared with the 1974-78 quadrennium. The growth rate of the combined university population will be halved and the growth rate at the Polytechnic, which will have been on average more than 20% each

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