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EDUCATION

With the establishment of the university's Faculty of Medicine, the government gazetted the Medical Registration (Amendment) Bill in July 1982, extending to the university the privileges enjoyed by the University of Hong Kong under the Medical Registration Ordinance. Under the provisions of the bill, a certificate of experience for the purpose of obtaining full registration may now be obtained from both universities, and membership of the Hong Kong Medical Council will be expanded to include a representative from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

In addition to research programmes conducted in individual departments, the university has three research institutes: the Institute of Chinese Studies, the Institute of Science and Technology, and the Institute of Social Studies and the Humanities. They promote inter-disciplinary research in their respective faculties, and provide facilities for faculty members to keep abreast of, and contribute to, developments in their own fields.

The Institute of Chinese Studies has three research centres and an art gallery. The Comparative Literature and Translation Centre carries out comparative studies of Chinese and Western literature and translation of classical and contemporary Chinese material. The Centre for Chinese Archaeology and Art concentrates on the building up of relevant facilities for research in the field, and on archaeology in China. The T. T. Ng Chinese Language Research Centre conducts studies on teaching materials and methods of teaching Chinese in primary and secondary schools, as well as contrastive studies of the grammar of Cantonese, Putonghua and English. It also compiles Chinese dictionaries and language indices.

Operating with the Institute of Science and Technology are three research centres. The Chinese Medicinal Material Research Centre undertakes investigation into Chinese herbs for fertility regulation; treating hepatitis and curing influenza; the bioactivities of ginseng; and the computerisation of information on Chinese medicinal materials. The university currently serves as a World Health Organisation Collaborating Research Centre for the study of herbs for fertility regulation, and also as a Commonwealth Science Council Liaison Centre for the cultivation and processing of medicinal plants. The Food Protein Production Research Centre conducts research into intensive agriculture involving the use of sewage wastes through successive steps in the algae, shrimp and fish food chain; the production of vegetable crops in sewage sludge; and the cultivation of straw mushrooms using cotton wastes and used tea-leaves. The third centre, the Hung On To Research Centre for Machine Translation, is engaged in developing a system capable of compiling a Chinese-English glossary.

Six research centres are grouped under the Institute of Social Studies and the Humanities. The Economic Research Centre focuses its attention on the economy of Hong Kong and of the West Pacific region. The Centre for Communication Studies continues its focus on communication concepts, patterns and principles in traditional and contemporary Chinese society, while the Social Research Centre conducts research on Hong Kong society with reference to its social order and social problems. The centre also undertakes studies on China. The Centre for East Asian Studies is committed to research on the historical, cultural, and socio-economic changes and interactions in four areas: Japan and Korea, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and the New Territories, and China in the East Asian context. Since 1980, the centre has undertaken an oral history project, in which local and overseas residents are interviewed on the history of Hong Kong and China. The Public Affairs Research Centre engages in research projects relating to law and state building in China and the relationship between development and adminis- tration in Hong Kong. The Geographical Research Centre studies recent developments