Vice-Chancellor's Report 1978-82

was established to examine the mode of governance and academic structure of the University, and its report formed the starting point of deliberations by a second Fulton Commission appointed by the Chancellor, Lord MacLehose (then Sir Murray), in 1976. Subsequently, the Commission recommended major changes in the structure of the University, as embodied in a new Ordinance which upon enactment in 1976 resulted in a major reorganization, in which all teaching departments became integrated on a University-wide basis, and the functions of the Colleges were redefined. It was certainly not a simple task to implement such wide-ranging changes, and only through the steadfast support and guidance of the Council under the chairmanship of Sir Yuet- keung Kan was the University able to accomplish all these within the relatively brief span of three years without causing interruption to its academic functions or being diverted from its basic goals and ideals. For this support and guidance, the University will be forever indebted. To sum up, after fifteen years of hard work, Dr. Choh-Ming Li accomplished three things: he enunciated the basic goals and orientations of the University; he brought the University together on a magnificent and well-planned campus; and he steered the University into a new institutional framework suitable for its future development. Wi t h all these accomplished, he felt the University was on its feet and retired. Thus when I became Vice- Chancellor it could be said that my task was relatively simpler than the founding Vice-Chancellor, even though in some aspects it might well be even more arduous. The University was at the beginning of my tenure faced with the following tasks: to consolidate and work out details of its new structure; to expand into those professional areas such as Business Administration and Medicine for which a beginning had been made, but solid work was yet required for putting them on a firm footing; to continue an ambitious building programme for accommodatin all these activities; and, last but not least, to truly come to grips with the goals and ideals of the University: to guide the development of unique teaching and research programmes, and to cultivate a congenial atmosphere and establish a living tradition in accordance with the object of developing a bilingual institution dedicated to the advancement and synthesis of Chinese and Western scholarship. While I believe the University has had moderate success in meeting the first three tasks, it has met its 3