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5.4
5.5
6.
6.1
CNAA enquiried into the forward position for equipping the new science and engineering laboratories when these were built. Little information was forthcoming, but the senior staff clearly believed that, even if equipment could never be generous, minimum operational levels would be achieved. There was time for plans to come to fruition, but the sparseness of the existing equipment left CNAA with some lack of confidence in this area.
From the discussion on the central computer services, it was clear to CNAA that the current provison is totally inadequate to meet the needs either of the academic programme or of the management tasks. The College agreed that no major packages can be run and that interactive facilities are lacking, while it was noted that a direct charge is made on students who use the facilities to partially offset costs. Staff agreed with the view expressed by CNAA that the recent acquisition of 10 PET Commodore micro-computers was insufficient for a College of this type even for basic familiarisation purposes. Considerable funding is required to give the College the computer facilities consistent with the level of work which is carried out in the institution. A link to existing powerful systems in other educational establishments in Hong Kong was seen as a temporary, short-term measure and will not change the requirements for a substantial in-house facility. (See also the report by the Science Group, "Report on Computing Facilities" Appendix D/1).
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DISCUSSIONS WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF THE FACULTY BOARDS
Discussions with representatives of the Faculty Boards resulted in general confirmation of the resporises covered by sections 4 and 5. However, the discussions also served to confirm the views which CNAA members had formed as a result of their visits to the departments that teachers tend to be kept out of effective participation, and somewhat readily to react along the lines that "the administration runs the College". It could, however, equally be said that the members of the Faculty Boards responded in that way since the Boards had become accustomed to exercising a role which was much more constrained than was indicated by their terms of reference. The two meetings normally held per year would in any event be too few for the Faculty Boards to be effective channels of communication to the Academic Board, while Faculties clearly had virtually no role in resource matters. The Faculty Boards were not unaware that there was scope to enlarge their responsibilities so as to make the departments better co-ordinated, and to monitor the quality of the courses; however, they were to some extent limited by the lack of administrative
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