Bulletin Number Two 1983

not wish, incidentally, to ignore the parallel problem of producing staff to teach the extra students. That too is a serious problem which the recent imposition of full cost-fees for overseas students in Britain does nothing to help. (3) I have already introduced my third issue, the issue of relations with government, and I will say no more about that except to underline the difficulties which universities may face if they genuinely try to fulfil their role as centres of independent comment in situations where even constructive criticism may be misinterpreted as opposition or even disloyalty. And, of course, the more universities become instruments of development and agents of change the more they are drawn into the front line. (4) Fourthly there is the issue of identity. Many of the universities founded in the newer countries of the Commonwealth up to and shortly after independence were on expatriate models. Dr. CW de Kiewiet goes even further and claims, in relation to African universities, that 'the paramount phenomenon of the sixties was that by far most of the thought, comment and prescription even on change and adjustment came from outside Africa'. The universities must resolve this issue of identity if they are to be truly national institutions. In 1973, after a decade of independence, a leading member of the Association of African Universities sadly reflected that the universities there remained as foreign as their origins. His concern has been repeated from Fiji to Trinidad. The remedy is much more than modifying curricula, as you in The Chinese University of Hong Kong will readily appreciate; it involves continuity with indigenous tradition and demands a deep and sensitive involvement with the life of the people. (5) Finally there is the issue of balance. When so much needs to be done, where lies the choice among many priorities — between those activities which will promote immediate benefit and those which will best prepare the nation for the long term; between the attractive modern sector and the needs of rural populations from which universities have too long been isolated; between the promotion of greater prosperity and the reduction of injustics and inequalities; between the role of a university as an intellectual centre influencing the whole of national life, political, cultural and social and its role as a supplier of manpower needs for economic growth? The choice is well put by Dr. Aklilu Habte, Director of the Education Division of the World Bank and former Vice-Chancellor in Ethiopia. 'Much of the currently fashionable literature on educational planning and development puts stress on instrumental economic goals, paying scant attention to others. In my view the civic and cultural development of our people are indispensable to other forms of development.' The issue of balance is not, however, confined to the possible roles and activities of the university itself; it extends to the balance of effort (and provision) within the education sector as a whole. The prestige which universities have has sometimes hampered the proper development overseas of other important components of the educational system; school curricula have sometimes been unduly shaped by considerations of university admission; and the appeal of degrees has sometimes diverted support from vocational training with the result that the output of trained personnel has become distorted. Universities cannot safely ignore this need for balance,however worthy their ambitions. Such then are some of the major issues in higher education confronting universities in various parts of the Commonwealth. In many respects you may feel that your situation in Hong Kong is different but I hope then that what I have said may stimulate you by its contrast. British universities have derived great benefit from their partnership with overseas universities in trying to solve some of these problems of university development in foreign settings. I hope that Hong Kong, with all its rich cultural, human and material resources, will make its unique contribution to international educational cooperation and with that in mind I leave with you some words of the Chairman of your founding commission speaking about the experience of British universities — 'The vivacity of our present awareness of the close relationship between the character of a university and its environment — educational, cultural, social and economic — is itself largely the product of our growing involvement as mature universities in the problems of new universities in overseas settings very different from our own.' ACADEMIC/CULTURAL EVENTS 21