Bulletin Report of The Commission on The Chinese University of Hong Kong March 1976

colleges and in particular are empowered to revoke decisions of their Academic Boards and Councils. It is all the more serious, if, as has been represented to us, the governing bodies of the Colleges are self-perpetuating. Our examination of their constitutions suggests to us that there is substance in this criticism. The Chung Chi College Board of Governors, for example, can co-opt up to 15 members, the power of co-option being capable of being exercised by a majority simply representative of Christian churches and missions. The New Asia Board of Governors has a possible membership of 33 and there is provision for 13 of them to be nominated by “such members who were Trustees of the New Asia College incorporated prior to 1 August 1959 or their successors" and for up to 5 others to be nominated by Board members. Furthermore, however, all members of the Board who are not ex-officio members have to be elected by a majority vote of the Board. In The United College the Board of Trustees consists of 19 members elected by the Board in comparison with 15 nominated and 5 ex-officio. 23. This characteristic of the composition of the Colleges' Governing Boards seems to us unsatisfactory. While we recognise the desire to maintain the traditions of the Foundation Colleges we believe that in the course of time it will inevitably be the members of the academic staff of the Colleges who will be the transmitters of the living tradition ； they will be the ones who are in day to day contact with successive generations of students. This is not to say that the Governing Boards of the Foundation Colleges have not given an indispensable service to the birth and early life of the University in preserving the diverse traditions embedded in the evolution of the post- secondary colleges. We are convinced that they have, and we believe that this should be recognised by ensuring, as an act of wisdom as well as gratitude, that one representative of each of the present (or possibly re-constituted) Boards of Governors/Trustees should find an ex-officio seat on the University Council. It is reasonable, too, that they should remain Trustees of the assets which the individual Colleges brought with them into the University and still retain. We recommend, however, that this should be the extent of their authority within the University. 24. There is a second consideration too. While we accept that the College Boards can claim to a varying extent to be representative of some of the interests of the community, it must be remembered that the Colleges expend substantial public funds. Our reasons for adovcating a change in the present constitutional arrangements are, we hope, not merely formal or pedantic but fundamentally important to the relationship between universities and governments in the modem world and it is to this subject that we next turn. 25. Most governments accept that for a modern society universities are, without qualification, a vital necessity for which they must provide; and at the same time these governments generally accept that, if universities are to carry out their functions successfully, they must enjoy a large measure of independence or autonomy. Universities do not flourish in strait-jackets. 26. This apparent inconsistency between dependence on public funds and autonomy has to be accepted. It needs skill and goodwill on both sides to see that the inconsistency does not produce unacceptable conseque For example, if a university were to step outside a reasonable latitude in this programme of development in the name of academic freedom it would be difficult for the government not to intervene in the public interest. 27. It is for this reason that one of the chief responsibilities of the vice- chancellor, the university's academic head, is to guide the processes of evolving consent for the "shape” of a university's development and to ensure