ENG-1989 — Page 159

EDUCATION

programme in medical sciences has been introduced in 1989-90 to give those medical students who have an affinity for medical research the opportunity to develop that interest. The university emphasises bilingualism. Students have to be proficient in both Chinese and English on admission, and both languages are used in teaching.

At postgraduate level, there are 57 academic and professional programmes leading to the degrees of Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Science, Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Philosophy, Master of Business Administration, Master of Social Work, Master of Divinity, Master of Science, Master of Arts, Master of Arts in Education and Master of Social Science, as well as diplomas in Education and Social Work.

Part-time degree programmes leading to Bachelor's degrees in Business Administration, Chinese and English, Mathematics and Statistics, Music, Physical Education, Primary Education and Social Work and Master's degrees in Translation, Chinese Language Literature, Business Administration and Social Work as well as professional diplomas in both Education and Social Work are offered to working adults.

Expansion in the fields of Education, Architecture, Medicine, Electronics and Computer Science is expected in the coming years. Plans are also in hand to establish engineering studies in the near future. In 1989–90, an Integrative Engineering Programme encom- passing Computer Engineering, Electronic Engineering and Information Engineering was launched.

The university is strongly committed to research and other academic activities. In addition to research work conducted in the teaching departments, six research centres are operating under the Research Institutes of Chinese Studies, Science and Technology, and Social Studies. The Hong Kong Institute of Biotechnology was established in 1988 on the university campus to promote biotechnology research and the development of a biotechnology industry in Hong Kong. The university also took over the management of the Universities Service Centre in 1988–9. Established since 1963, the centre has provided office accommodation and professional assistance to several generations of international scholars who came to Hong Kong to carry out research on contemporary China. It has built up an extensive library of over 400 newspapers and 1000 journals and magazines published in China.

Competition for university places is intense. Of the 25 000 candidates who sat the various public examinations held in 1989, approximately 1 650 were admitted to first year studies. Enrolment as of September 1989 totalled 8 436, comprising 6 214 full-time and 763 part- time undergraduate students and 490 full-time and 969 part-time postgraduate students. Almost all students are local, and about half of them are given hostel places.

In 1988-9, the Department of Extramural Studies offered more than 1 710 courses with a total enrolment of 53 300. In addition to general courses and those leading to the award of diplomas and certificates, the department provided correspondence courses, courses on radio and television and self-learning courses packaged in the form of audio tapes, programmed texts and resource materials. Apart from running courses in China, the department collaborates with universities and institutions of higher learning in Canada and Australia in offering joint courses in a variety of subjects and at different levels. The distance education programme has expanded rapidly with the support of Radio Television Hong Kong. Cable television, which will come into operation next year, will be harnessed to further develop distance education.

With an increasing rate of growth in the number of students and new programmes, an extensive development proposal has been planned for the university's physical plants. Unfortunately, owing to shortage of labour and material and high inflation which badly

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