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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

Higher Education. The University of Hong Kong, which began its life largely with financial assistance from generous friends and benefactors, has since been largely supported by recurrent and non-recurrent grants from the Government. Its recurrent expendi- ture for the year under review is estimated at $12,000,000 and the Government subvention towards recurrent expenditure is $5,500,000, while the budgeted capital subvention is $3,000,000. Grants of Crown Land have been made from time to time; the central University estate now covers an area of thirty six acres and other estates total almost nine acres.

There are faculties of Arts, Science, Medicine, and Engineering and Architecture. Enrolments in October 1959 were 507, 163, 299 and 141 respectively. The Institute of Oriental Studies had thirty one students, the Education Diploma and Certificate courses ninety nine and the Social Study course twenty six, giving a total of 1,266 undergraduate and post-graduate students, of whom 115 were part-time. 343, or 26.9% were women. The general medium of study is English. The minimum qualification for entry to undergraduate courses is gained through the University's matricu- lation Examination, which is similar in type and standard to the General Certificate of Education Examinations conducted by the Universities of the United Kingdom. Most of the under- graduates are Chinese but several other races are represented, particularly from South-East Asia. About 340 students receive financial aid in the form of scholarships and bursaries.

With the increasing numbers qualifying for entrance from the schools, Government and the University have agreed on a programme of expansion which will increase the number of undergraduates to about 1,800 in the next seven years.

The number of full-time teaching staff, from demonstrators upwards, is 184. Over eighty of these are the University's own graduates.

Final plans for the new Library and Students' Union, to be built on a site south of the Main Building, have been approved and building will soon start.

A capital sum of $700,000 was needed to enable the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture to reinstate degree courses in electrical and mechanical engineering, Government contributed half this sum, and with generous donations from various local