TNAG-1072-FCO40-1322-Policy-of-the-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-1981 — Page 77

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whom are recently qualified and one who was formerly a full-time member of staff. Members felt that there was little academic depth and the department was itself conscious that it needed more appropriate full-time staff.

The inadequacy of the college's computer facilities is a particularly serious handicap in the area of Accounting.

6.

6.1

6.2

6.3

MEETING WITH THE ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT

Members of the visiting party had expressed considerable interest in the proposed Diploma and Honours Diploma offered by the Department of Economics. It seemed to them to present a useful and interesting preparation for a variety of subsequent careers in Economics and Business. They noted that the staff were quite confident that in the future there would be a market for students who had followed the Economics Diploma even in competition with business diplomates. The course curriculum was designed to enable students completing it to have acquired the basic knowledge and theories of the important branches of Economics and be well equipped with basic analytic tools. Members felt that the Diploma and Honours Diploma programmes presented were over-ambitious. They were, therefore, very interested to talk to the staff and assess their competence to offer the courses which they had developed. They were also concerned to find out whether the students who were likely to enrol would in fact be able to cope with the syllabuses and texts which were included in the documentation.

Eight academic staff are in post and there are no part-time staff in this department. Excluding the head of department, the average teaching load is approximately 14 hours. However, the student/staff ratio is very high; Members learned that it was at present 26:1 for the senior programme only. Five out of the eight staff had been at the establishment for less than two years. Members were impressed with their competence and ability but fear that despite their great loyalty to the Baptist College sooner or later they may well leave because of the low level of remuneration and the problem of staff turnover will yet again become evident.

One member of the teaching staff operates a research centre but has no full-time or part-time assistant. He has obtained funds from the Student Economic Society and members were encouraged to see evidence that some private research is being done. This has resulted in some competent publications and this area could clearly be developed by the existing staff given modest financial support and a substantial improvement in computer facilities.