ENG-1988 — Page 162

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EDUCATION

Literature, English Language and Literature, Music and Fine Arts, Religion and Philo- sophy); the Faculty of Science (Departments of Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Computing Studies); the Faculty of Social Sciences (Departments of Communication, Geography, History, Social Work, Sociology); and the School of Business (Departments of Accountancy, Administrative Information Management, Economics, Finance, Human Resources Management, Marketing). In addition, the Language Centre and the Physical Education Unit provide teaching services to students from all courses.

To enable the previous honours diplomates of the college to upgrade their qualifications to that of a Bachelor's Degree, the college began to offer in 1988-9 part-time conversion courses for the BSc(Hons) in Combined Sciences and the BSW in Social Work. As of October, 310 students were enrolled in these part-time courses. Apart from these and a two-year diploma course in Computing Studies, all regular courses of the college require three years of full-time study, and students are admitted on the results of the Hong Kong Advanced Level (HKAL) examination. In 1988-9, applications for admission continued to exceed by far the number of available places with an average of nine qualified applicants to every place.

In October, the total full-time student enrolment was 2 696, with a breakdown of: Arts 468, Business 718, Science 618, and Social Sciences 892. While 87 per cent of the first year students were on degree courses, the number of students on degree courses for all years constituted 57 per cent of the total enrolment. Additionally, there were 69 students enrolled in a special two-year course preparing them to sit for the HKAL examination in music. The teaching staff strength stood at 220, with the majority of them holding higher degrees from overseas institutions. Senior academic and administrative staff are recruited through international advertisement.

Two new buildings, one for student amenities and the other for additional teaching accommodation for the Communication Department, were completed for use during the year. Construction work has also begun for three other new buildings which will provide facilities for the Science and Business Faculties, administrative offices, and indoor sports facilities. The entire campus redevelopment project will be completed in 1989-90 and will increase the space provision by 80 per cent, in time for the growth of the student population to 3 000.

The college's main library has a unique integrated computer system covering all the major library services. The collection of books increased to 230 000 during the year. There is also a branch library which holds a special collection of research materials on contemporary China between 1949 and 1976. With increases in research funding from the UPGC and from the college endowment funds, staff research and consultancy continued to grow significantly, and there were also increases in academic exchanges with institutions in China and overseas.

The Division of Continuing Education also offers a broad range of cultural, vocational and professional courses to meet the needs of people in employment. These courses are mostly part-time and held in the evening using the campus and off-campus centres. There was a total enrolment of 40 000 during the year for the 910 courses offered by the division.

Provisional Hong Kong Council for Academic Accreditation

In August 1987 the government decided that Hong Kong should manage its own external validation of non-university degree courses to ensure that their academic standards are comparable to those of an internationally-recognised degree level. For this purpose, the