Bulletin Winter 1999

Indeed, you, the graduates of 1989, are already members of Hong Kong's highly productive labour force. Through your presence in this community as strong and competent human resource, you are the testimony of the contributions of this University. We have launched three major tasks and one major new policy in our preparations for expanding our ability to train a larger number of students at greater efficiency and to attain the quality of graduates who are capable of competing with others on a worldwide basis in their field of specialization and generalization. These major tasks are: (1) a credit-unit based curriculum; (2) a broad front of linkages with local and overseas academic and other organizations; and (3) a number of research institutes serving as the infrastructures for promoting the growth of trade and industries in Hong Kong. The major new policy concerns the recruitment and retention of academic and administrative human resources. Although all these have already been mentioned in my two open letters to my colleagues and students, I believe it useful to state them here with a different emphasis. The credit-unit based curriculum was launched over three years ago and will complete its first cycle this academic year. We are currently undertaking a thorough revision, based on our experience gained, to remove operational shortcomings and to improve its flexibility. The design was originally and still is to meet the requirement of offering fields of studies with flexible coverage of subject areas in suitable breadth and depth compatible with the rapid growth of knowledge and the educational process. We are even more convinced of the strength of this system to deliver quality graduates efficiently and in an orderly manner from a larger number of incoming students with probable greater spread of abilities. This system, incidentally, allows us to deal with the situations of students entering from the current Form V I and Form V I I and the future Secondary V I I admirably. The speed of progress is automatically self-adjusting depending on the preparedness of the incoming students. Assuming success in the improvement of the education delivered in the secondary school through the re-designed syllabuses of the A and AS level subjects, our flexible credit unit system will adapt well and be highly attractive to the students. Linkages with local and overseas academic institutions, and a host of other entities permit our staff and students to be exposed to different and enriching environments and to have broader connections with the outside world. Through our exchange academic programmes we are referencing our course standards on a worldwide basis. Through our joint research work, we are reaching out to centres of excellence and are able to participate or organize with other researchers in larger and more substantive research projects. Through joint supervision, we can have a larger number of postgraduate students. Through consulting with the commercial sector, and undertaking research projects from them, our staff will have greater career development options and our students can gain early appreciation from their potential employers. We are actively developing new linkages in almost all our academic discipline areas. This task is made easier with the increase in the availability of research funding from the UPGC and our successes in developing many different forms of linkages. Our Office of Industrial and Business Development is being incorporated into a support function called simply 'University Development' and it strengthens our overall effort in increasing our external links. It is appropriate to mention the ease in our establishment of links with both the US and UK systems of universities as a result of our adoption of the credit-unit based education system. We have established the first of a number of research institutes with the explicit purpose of serving as the infrastructure necessary for the promotion and operation of new industries in Hong Kong. Having received a generous grant from the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club of $170 million in July this year, we are now constructing a building on a reclaimed site near our Marine Science Laboratory to house the first purpose-built laboratory and pilot production facility for biotechnology in Hong Kong. It is scheduled for completion by July 1991. While the building is under construction, we are already with the actual work in our Lady Shaw Building. With many unique advantages in Hong Kong for biotechnology, we anticipate early evidence of a new biotechnology- based industry to emerge. This example illustrates the intent and progress of our effort in helping Hong Kong to establish new and viable industries. They will help to improve the confidence of the people in Hong Kong and will send the right messages to all concerned about the future importance of Hong Kong. 3