TNAG-1072-FCO40-1322-Policy-of-the-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-1981 — Page 147

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14.14 Also the staff have not appreciated the importance of the

course's aims and of different parts fitting the aims of the course and therefore had some difficulty in appreciating what members see to be a conflict of aims within the course.

15.

15.1

THE PROFESSIONAL AND ACADEMIC QUALITY OF THE STAFF

It is the Council's experience over many years that the most important and vital factor in considering a course is the quality and experience of the staff responsible for the operation of that course. The visiting party has therefore taken particular care on the occasion of the visit to meet the staff, to assess the quality of their qualifications and experience and to assess the extent to which they have and can contribute individually and corporately to the development of the course and the maintenance of its standard. While there are many aspects of a course which may be remedied by a good and stable group of staff under competent leadership, the absence of such a group of staff means that there is little in which the Council can place its confidence.

15.2 The staff at the Baptist College are well qualified

academically. Of the full-time staff only the Head of Dept has a professional UK engineering qualification, five part-time staff do. The staff's industrial experience is limited and the theoretical content of the course relfects this. Of the seven full-time staff one is a chemical engineer and two are physicists in origin.

15.3

15.4

The staff at the Baptist College have published a number of articles in recent years which shows a commendable attempt to maintain their academic vigour, but most of the publications within the past years other than ones in Physics have been mainly restricted to College and University journals.

Some of the staff are active in consultancy and this undoubtedly helps to maintain their professional awareness, however, members are not convinced that all the staff seek to keep themselves aware of current developments in their discipline as much as they might, for example by reading the standard civil engineering journals. In fact the library seems little used by staff.

15.5 The department's testing section earns a large annual

income which has contributed to the purchase of much of the equipment the department has. The materials testing programme generates a surplus income for the rest of the College. Although useful the programme contributes little to the professional development of the staff.