TNAG-1072-FCO40-1322-Policy-of-the-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-1981 — Page 42

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4.4

4.4.1

4.4.2

4.5

It is not satisfactory that so much reliance should be placed on individual teachers to determine the balance and overall quality of the courses offered, without structures involving the staff as a whole charged with setting and monitoring standards and having appropriate channels to secure the resources which are needed to sustain them. CNAA stresses the benefit which would come to the College if the Academic Board, the Faculty Boards and the Departmental Boards were all to interact more fully in areas which are covered in principle by their terms of reference, but where these terms of reference are not fully implemented.

Examination Procedures

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If standards are to be maintained and enhanced, the freedom which currently seems to exist whereby individual teachers examine students virtually in the absence of any declared scheme of assessment, and against a background of little or no definitive assessment policy, is unsatisfactory. CNAA is no way faults what it sees as basically the American system adopted by Baptist College, but that system needs some modification in a College which is still facing some problems in the matter of standards, and in convincing the outside world that those standards are high. The Academic Board should set down principles for the preparation of assessment schemes, and each course should have a definitive scheme of assessment and arrangements for its effectiveness to be monitored.

The College is strongly encouraged to appoint External Examiners for all high level courses as a further safeguard of standards and as a guardian of the interests of individual students. CNAA appreciates that this recommendation has resource implications.

Staff Development and the Fostering of an Academic Community

Action should be taken to reduce the isolation of staff. The isolation is in some measure a consequence of the relatively small size of the College, but also follows from the tendency of the major institutions to regard Baptist staff as "second class citizens"; it will not be cured quickly, but it must be recognised as an urgent problem. In part, CNAA is here highlighting the need for staff development, but of equal importance are the many steps which could be taken to foster a sense of academic community, including, for example, a more developed role for the staff as a whole in decision making, (4.3). Whatever steps are possible should be taken to give staff more ready access to fora in Hong Kong and elsewhere where their subject is