TNAG-1072-FCO40-1322-Policy-of-the-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-1981 — Page 64

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3.2

3.3

examination regulations, had been written by Professor Dewhurst who had taken the former requlations for

Business Studies and enhanced them to conform to United Kingdom Polytechnic practice and the CNAA "Principles and Regulations".

It became clear in the discussion that Professor Dewhurst had been under the mistaken impression that CNAA would expect the examination regulations to reflect CNAA practice even at a level of detail. In order to meet that requirement in the time available, he had included extensive extracts from the regulations of one or more of the United Kingdom Polytechnics without having had the opportunity to submit his revisions either to the Board of Studies for Business or to the Academic Board; thus they remained essentially a draft. In practice, CNAA did not intend its "Principles and Regulations" to be seen as more than a useful backcloth to its evaluation of practice in Lingnan College.

While the CNAA made allowance for a certain amount of misunderstanding, the regulations had been modified so extensively from those actually in operation that they could hardly have been operated by Lingnan College within its present academic structure; the fact that they were presented to CNAA in this form cast considerable doubts on the effectiveness of the procedures in the college for considering academic matters, even allowing for the short timescale. It was also disturbing that the documents had only been placed in the hands of CNAA on Thursday 8 January when apparently several senior members of the staff had not then seen them.

4.

4.1

STAFFING OF THE COLLEGE

At the initial meeting on Thursday 8 January concerned with Business Studies, the CNAA had explored the way in which the College projected its staffing needs for the next 2 or 3 years and matched its commitments to its estimate of its income. Those discussions seemed to show that very little forward planning of staffing needs took place. Members felt that the growth of the College in recent years had been dictated largely by the extent to which students were attracted to some courses and not to others and that, in every respect, the College lived on a knife edge in the matter of the adequacy and balance of its staff. While it was appreciated that staff planning was made very difficult by the low salaries, the College seemed to do so little forward planning as to place the integrity of the education offered at risk.