Vice-Chancellor's Report 1978-82

Chapter 3 Academic Development s New Programme s A. Facult y o f Medicin e The most important development at the University in these four years was no doubt the establishment of the Faculty of Medicine. Tremendous efforts went into the design of the curricula, the admission of students, the recruitment of teachers and the construction of buildings. The University was fortunate to have the service of Professor G.H. Choa, a former Director of the Medical and Health Department, as the founding Dean of the Faculty. Guided by the collective wisdom of the Medical Academic Advisory Committee under the chairmanship of Sir Wi l l i am Trethowan, Professor Choa played a leading role i n ensuring that staff recruitment and course planning were on target, physical developments on schedule, and all facilities assembled together to offer teaching to the students in time. The development of the Faculty of Medicine was not without its problems, one of which was its adoption of a special mode of student admission. From the outset, the University and Polytechnic Grants Committee had requested the Faculty of Medicine to draw its students from two streams: an internal stream of candidates who had completed the first-year course of the Faculty of Science and an external stream of candidates who had sat for the Advanced Level Examination. The former channel was considered to be a new avenue open to Chinese middle school students, who had hitherto only limited opportunities for medical education at a university. Admission through the latter channel, however, was at variance wi th the University's usual mode of admission geared to the Higher Level Examination taken after one year's study in Form VI ， as against the Advanced Level Examination which was taken after two years of Sixth Form studies. The University's main concern was that its object of providing general all-round education should not be affected, and measures had been taken to ensure 15