Sessional_Paper_1938 — Page 212

Enclosure No. 3.

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University management; further mention of this occurs in paragraph S, infra. The other, afterwards withdrawn, was moved by the Bishop of Hong Kong. No notice of motions arising directly out of the resolutions of the Faculties and Senate was received.

6. In the few cases in which any members of the Court dissented from a ⚫ resolution of the Council, the fact is recorded in the minutes. The resolutions passed by the Court are shown in the minutes and these, read in conjunction with the resolutions of the Senate and Council shown in parallel columns against the paragraph of the report to which they refer and with the memorandum on the proceedings of the Court meeting, give in detail the judgment of the various University bodies on the issues raised in the report.

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7. The resolutions of the Court, which is the " supreme governing body" of the University, may, for convenience of comment, be grouped together. Resolu- tion XXIV in the minutes shows that, with the acquiescence of the University Council, various proposals intended to simplify the conduct of University business by a closer co-ordination of University authorities and by the establishment of small executive bodies functioning, in the one case, by the authority of the Court and, in the other, by the authority of the Senate, were referred through an amendment of the Council's original resolution, to a committee, to be nominated by the Chan- cellor, for further consideration and for the preparation of such draft amendments of the University Ordinance as might be found necessary. The committee should be able to report to the Court at a meeting to be held early in the academic year commencing in September next. A copy of its report will be sent to you as soon as circumstance allows.

8. Resolution X approves the proposal for the time being to eliminate specialized training in mechanical and electrical engineering. These subjects will still continue to be taught to the necessary standard in the course for the degree of B.Sc. in engineering (civil). The summary statement of the progress of teaching in the three branches of engineering since the institution of the University given as enclosure No. 3 of this despatch shows the major reason for this change. A subsidiary reason is that it has been found impossible to organize adequate appren- ticeship in industrial engineering in Hong Kong, so that, after graduation, the best men have had to be assisted to apprenticeships, chiefly in Great Britain. The Council and the Court accepted the view that an adequate supply of industrial engineers could be maintained if the University of Hong Kong were able to give scholarships to assist students who had shown definite merit in the intermediate examination in engineering, to be held hereafter in Hong Kong by the University of London. The purpose of such scholarships would be to enable the holders to complete their education in industrial engineering in England where facilities for adequate appren- tice-training are ample.

9. Resolution XIX, dealing with paragraph 63 of the report, gives the Court's approval of the Council's resolution that the Professorships of Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics should be reduced to lectureships or readerships unless the financial .condition of the University improves or unless the work done in these departments of the University develops. The discussion in the Council centred in the second condition and in effect ignored the condition as to finance. These departments at present and in the past have done almost no work except such as is preliminary to medical and engineering studies. At rare intervals there have been one or two students for a three year course in these subjects and at even rarer intervals has there been a student for a fourth year course. Not one of these departments can show any record of original work in fact they have been and are little more than school departments doing school work.