Sessional_Paper_1938 — Page 243

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Report.

61. It is not easy for us to criticize such a thing as a curriculum but we are satisfied that there is need of rigorous pruning in this Faculty as soon as this can, without injustice to the exist- ing staff, be accomplished. We have been con- strained to think that as at present constituted the Faculty is following a curriculum not alto- gether suited for its "clientele ". We feel that it has been modelled too closely on the lines of an English University, and that this induces an atmosphere of unreality. Many of the courses can have no real interest or final meaning for Chinese, and we are extremely doubtful whether the Department of Commerce can justify its exist- ence. The courses given therein (particularly in the subject of Accountancy) bear no real relation to the actual practice of commerce in China, where development of joint-stock companies lags behind and where few business organizations have been developed beyond the size which can be controlled by members of a single family.

Resolutions of Senate and Faculties.

See Memorandum "B".

Resolutions of Council.

(Connected with paragraphs 55 and 63). Resolved:-

(1) that the Council is of opinion that the degree courses in Science or Arts subjects based on a conception of general education as well as courses leading to professions are an essential need in this University.

(2) that the development of good schools of English and Chinese in this University is an essential need.

(3) that a school of Economics and Politics based upon the teaching of History and the study of working Political Institutions of the West and East is an essential need, and that, if necessary, provision for such teaching should be made at the expense of the present courses in Commercial Law and Jurisprudence at any rate until such time as there is a demand for courses in Law leading to a Law Degree.

It was recorded that this decision should be subject to the provision that it would not be put into operation to the prejudice of students who were already taking the course,

68. The time may not be ripe and certainly the funds are not yet available. But we have visions of an Arts Faculty that would specialise in Political Theory.

62. We are also conscious of a certain lack of co-ordination in the Arts Faculty.

that,

(a) The Senate would point out although it is the nature of courses in a Faculty of Arts, especially when dealing with two dis- similar cultures, to be less easily co-ordinated