Vice-Chancellor's Report 1978-82

The EMSD was not content to organize more of the same courses each year and took steps to cater to new, specialized needs of different sectors of the community. These included offering courses i n new academic disciplines such as Mass Communication and Performing Arts. An International Summer Dance Course was organized as a three-week residential programme on campus in the summer of 1979 for 200 participants from different parts of the world. Other new activities of the EMSD included the running of various training courses for the Home Affairs Department of the Hong Kong Government and several companies i n the private sector. Another new development i n these four years was the "Course by Newspaper" programme which had the support of six newspapers i n Hong Kong i n carrying weekly articles in their papers written by local and overseas academics on subjects as diverse as morals and society, technology and change, general psychology, families and society, as well as managing and accountability. Equally successful was an annual management development course for executives in junior to middle management positions. Entitled "Management for Executive Development'', the course which was entirely self-sufficient proved very popular and received highly favourable comments. A t a time when people seem to have rediscovered an interest in radio programmes, the EMSD was not slow to grasp the opportunity to offer distance education and language programmes over the radio. I n 1979/80, two radio courses were run i n collaboration wi th Radio Television Hong Kong. Language courses by radio were also very successful. A number of requests were received for EMSD's services in language teaching, including one from the education authorities of Guangdong Province. Owing to the limitation of accommodation and other facilities, enrolment for classroom courses is likely to stabilize and it is not expected that any spectacular advance will be made in the foreseeable future. However, it is likely that the Department's increased activities may be channelled in the direction of distance education through the utilization of the mass media, together wi th audiovisual technologies. G. The Three-year MB A Programm e Tow n Centr e I n response to the strong demand from working executives for opportunities for advanced studies i n business administration, the 42