TNAG-1072-FCO40-1322-Policy-of-the-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-1981 — Page 86

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2.2

2.3

2.4

2.5

in each of the four subjects. Meetings: then took place with senior science staff and the Faculty Dean

(Dr M H Mok), and separately with the staff of each department.

A report of this first visit was produced specifically for the College, the purpose of which was simply to aid discussion during the second visit. That report avoided setting down judgements and instead presented factual information and the current perceptions of the visiting party. Owing to delays in producing that report, it could only be handed to staff at the beginning of the second visit.

The report of the first visit, as amended after the second visit is available separately and the information contained there will not be repeated here.

The second visit was on 13 January, although some discussions of Physics also took place on 12 January. The arrangements involved meetings with students and further discussions with staff which were aimed at correcting any erroneous impressions gained during the first visit.

A second institutional visit was made on 14 January 1981 and this also allowed some of the general points arising from the science discussions to be clarified.

3.

3.1

3.2

FORM OF THIS REPORT

Before the question about comparability of programmes can be answered, a number of points of difference need to be considered, as they affect the way in which the visiting party has been able to deal with the question.

Firstly, the objectives of the programmes all differ significantly. Broadly, the Polytechnic programmes are applied and vocational and their nature relates, in UK terms, to technician work (for example the former HND).

The Baptist College programmes are much "purer" and stress the educational value of study of the subjects for their own sake, and the College claims that they relate most closely to the programmes of the Chinese University and the Hong Kong University; the visiting party has not been able to check that type of comparison, nor was it asked so to do. However, there are some similarities between the objectives of the Baptist College programmes and those of the "purer" kind of UK DipHE (for the Senior Diploma) and perhaps non-honours Degree (for the Honours diploma); this is not a considered judgement about level, because the visiting party was not asked to attempt such comparisons.