Bulletin Spring 1989

limited. Actions already started are: —Placing emphasis on good teaching and teaching responsibilities as one of the primary promotion criteria. —Reviewing the structure and size of core courses for each discipline. -Rev i ew i ng the purpose and effectiveness of examinations. —Matching resource to quality. Research We are living in a dynamic world. Our knowledge must be constantly upgraded to keep up with progress. It is imperative for teaching staff to undertake a certain amount of research in order to update his own area of expertise and to put the proper up-to-date perspective in his teaching. Research is a discipline in learning. The Chinese University of Hong Kong must also expand its research efforts in some chosen focussed areas to capitalize on both the talents available and the local advantages. Through these efforts, we shall be able not only to supply future higher degree graduates, but also to create areas of excellence in knowledge and technology for Hong Kong. Actions started are: —Creation of research student fellowships with a view to increasing the number of PhD candidates. -Development of joint research projects with outside universities recognized as centres of excellence in mainline research areas. -Rationalization of research leave in summer. Research achievements will remain an important criterion for promotion, but the emphasis will be on quality rather than mere quantity. Research as an aid to good teaching w i l l also be encouraged but the negligence of teaching with over emphasis on research will be discourage. It is to be especially noted that having successful research students is an excellent indicator of both good teaching and good research. Research provides a convenient bridge to the community. The sum total of research efforts in a university is a measure of the depth and breadth of a knowledge pool which the community can tap for a variety of purposes. Consultancy is an obvious example of a knowledge pool service. Institutes For Hong Kong's future, New opportunities must be created for investment to continue to be attracted. In this competitive age, Hong Kong must prepare its internal network and infrastructure well. The University is in a position to contribute to the community by providing well-trained graduates as well as to create certain well chosen infrastructure s in the form of independently funded and separately managed institutes withi n the University. These institutes are in addition to the existing internal research institutes. They wil l be able to highlight and make-ready key technologies for industrial exploitation, knowledge creation, and intellectual/ commercial developments. The University is funded by the community. The Institutes are the direct links to community and form an additional dimension to the role of the University in society. Properly organized, they will permit strong coupling of the University to the community and wil l enable the University to derive long term financial resource in addition to the direct subvention it receives from the Government. Actions started in this direction include: —Setting up a University Development Office to deal with external affairs. -Es t ab l i shed the Office of Industrial and Business Development which will later be part of the University Development Office. - Es t ab l i s hed Hong Kong Biotechnology Institute. - P r e p a r i n g the formation of Institutes i n Business Administration, Sports Medicine, Material Science. Student numbers The four-year credit-unit based education structure of this University has the best potential to cope well with future educational needs in Hong Kong. It is being developed to gain the strength and flexibility intrinsic to this system. With modem management tools and techniques and with our resident experience, we should attain lower cost and improved operational efficiency if the size of the University can be expanded to considerably larger than our present UPGC approved projected size of 10,000 students by 1997. We are also the only university in Hong Kong with space suitable for such an expansion. We have proposed a 6% per annum expansion towards an eventual size of 20,000 students by the year 2008. This will meet Hong Kong's need for expanding tertiary sector student places at the same time. About 2 0% of the student body is envisaged to be postgraduate students. Management structure Modem universities are complex entities requiring the support of an appropriate management structure. The Chinese University of Hong Kong has adopted a Commonwealth University management 3