ENG-1985 — Page 137

EDUCATION

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throughout the university is English, except in the Department of Chinese. Most of the undergraduate courses are of three years duration except the courses for the degrees of Bachelor of Architecture, Bachelor of Dental Surgery, and Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, which are of five years duration, and those for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Quantity Surveying, which are of four years duration. All courses lead to honours degrees.

Close links are maintained with other universities through the Association of Common- wealth Universities and the Association of Southeast Asian Institutes of Higher Learning. The structure of the degrees and the governance of the university are based mainly on the British system and external examiners who are eminent academics in the field, generally from Britain and the United States, visit in each subject area at least once every three years and moderate each year's finals papers. Competition for places at the university is intense and in many cases there are five times the number of applications from qualified candidates as there are places available. The university's academic staff are recruited by international advertisement.

The university is in the middle of a substantial building programme. Nearing completion is a 'composite building', with an amenities centre, a hall of residence with 300 student places, and accommodation space for the Faculty of Engineering. Academic visitors to the university and a number of postgraduate students can be accommodated at Robert Black College.

Accommodation is provided for a maximum of 25 per cent of undergraduate students in residential halls. To help students with homes where facilities for study are poor or who wish to avoid lengthy travel yet cannot be accommodated in a hall of residence, the university has increased its emphasis on the provision of general amenities over the past few years. These include study and rest rooms, games and music rooms, and restaurant facilities located at three amenities centres. To improve the sports facilities, a new site, with a grandstand, has been developed on reclaimed land at Sandy Bay on the western shore of Hong Kong Island. It has been named the Stanley Ho Sports Centre and was officially opened in August.

The Department of Extra-mural Studies offers a wide variety of vocational and professional courses and courses of general or cultural interest. Evening classes held at the university, and day and evening courses at its town centre, are attended by nearly 25 000 students each year.

At postgraduate level the university offers facilities for both Master's and Doctor's degrees. Master's degrees by coursework are available in a number of subjects and the Master of Philosophy degree is awarded on the basis of research at Master's level. Doc- torates are awarded on the basis of research.

With the re-equipping of the university's laboratories under the present development programme, its Science and Engineering Departments contain the latest teaching equip- ment. It also has one of the best-equipped libraries in Southeast Asia. The main library accommodates more than 600 000 volumes including the Fung Ping Shan Chinese Library with its valuable collection of works in Chinese while some individual faculties have subsidiary library units. The Fung Ping Shan Museum of Chinese Art is attached to the university and is also used as a teaching museum by the Department of Fine Arts. Research projects continue through the university's various departments, the Language Centre, the Centre of Asian Studies - which serves as a focal point for multi-disciplinary research on China, Hong Kong, East Asia and Southeast Asia and the Centre for Urban Studies and Urban Planning.

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