A New Era Begins 1975-78

organic principle of operation is the most effective means of interrelating and integrating the general and distinctive goals of The Chinese University. In the organic institution the whole is greater than the sum of the parts; and the parts——colleges, schools, faculties, departments, institutes, and centres——are themselves illuminated and enriched by the whole. The interdependence of academic disciplines is recognized, and their informal interaction and their formal cooperation are encouraged and organizationally facilitated. Institutes and centres are not peripheral units, but integral parts of a total programme. Projects o f the Institute of Chinese Studies draw upon a wide range of disciplines, and enrich the instructional programme. The Social Research Centre, using Western empirical methods, gains new insights into Chinese culture. It is well known that in universities the creation o f new knowledge frequently occurs at points where the traditional boundaries of academic disciplines meet or overlap. In such instances, the organic principle provides the most favourable institutional setting for the creative process. Ideals of Liberal Education No description of the enduring goals of The Chinese University would be complete without an explicit reaffirmation of the ideals of liberal education. While fully recognizing its responsibility to provide its undergraduates wi th specialized training in basic and professional fields, The Chinese University retains its traditional concern for the values of liberal education. As stated in the first Report of the Vice-Chancellor, The First Six Years, 1963-1969, The Chinese University believes that "liberal arts should be part of everyone's education”, a concept which “has grown from the native soil of Chinese culture and has always been a part of the Chinese philosophy of education". In its Final Report, the Working Party on Educational Policy and University Structure took cognizance of this heritage from the Foundation Colleges, and recommended that the University continue to provide an "undergraduate programme balanced between an idea-orientated general education and a discipline-orientated specialized education". Undergraduate Education In the light of the enduring goals discussed above, the pattern of undergraduate education at The Chinese University becomes clear. First, there is bilingualism: the study of Chinese, bo th as a tool of learning and as a way of deepening the student's understanding of the Chinese intellectual and cultural tradition; and the study of the English language as a tool of learning and communication. General Educations Role Second, there is the programme in “general education", a concerted curricular effort to provide for each student certain kinds of intellectual experiences associated w i th traditional liberal education. "General education" in Western universities, it should be noted ， has been 13