Bulletin Vol. 2 No. 4 Nov 1965

The Chancellor, H.E. the Governor, Sir David Trench, arrives at City Hall for the 4th Congregation. On his left, the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Choh-Ming Li. Having congratulated you, I must quickly add that you should not therefore be self-satisfied. While your degrees have been recognised by Government, by the local community, and by other universities, it is very much up to you yourselves to demonstrate to them the real worth of the training given in The Chinese University. The great majority of you, who are not pursuing advanced studies here or abroad, will soon start your career. I hope you will always consider this University as a source of your strength and support. I am keenly conscious of the fact that the University has not lived up entirely to your expectation in many respects. Particularly, the announcement of the results of your degree examinations has been so late as to render it practically impossible for many of you to make personal plans during the whole summer. W e have been looking into this matter seriously and will soon formulate a procedure that will correct this unfortunate situation. You may rest assured that we are making relentless efforts to build the University into an institution of which you can be justly proud. In these efforts you are invited to participate and to do your share. Sources of Strength A university derives its strength from two sources: first, from the scholarship of its faculties, that is, their research and original contribution to knowledge ； and second, from the quality and performance of its graduates in the community. N o university deserving its name can afford to devote itself mainly to undergraduate teaching with no great emphasis on research. Indeed, many a famous liberal arts college abroad has done exactly that, but this is because its faculties and students have easy and ready access tofirst-rateuniversities; and we must not forget that such a college, famous as it is, is not a university. Especially in a place like Hong Kong so far away from other academic centres, if the faculties and advanced students are not urged to engage in research, undergraduate teaching could very easily drop further and further behind the world current of intellectual development一to the lasting disadvantage to our students and to the local community. Worse still, without research we do not even have proper teaching materials for the undergraduates in many fields of study. Thus, research serves to develop good teachers and to produce good teaching materials. W e should, of course, guard against the danger of carrying this emphasis on research too far. In many first-rate universities abroad there has been a tendency for the faculty members to devote full attention to research and publication at the expense of teaching and for the university administration to evaluate them according to their publication. This so-called "Publish or Perish" policy, of course, defeats a major purpose of the university, which is to teach students. That is why we have been so intent on adopting new teaching methods and implementing them step by step beginning in this current semester. W e expect that in due time the whole plan will be in practice and we will improve on it through experience. It is most likely that our experiment will attract more and more worldwide attention as time goes on. Research is Crucial But the fact remains that "Teach without Publication" is disastrous and fatal to a university. Research is crucial to good teaching, and a good teaching system will allow the faculty members to have sufficient time for research. You may recall that about six months ago the University established two Institutes for faculty research, the Institute of Social Studies and the Humanities and the Institute of Science and Technology. N o w in this current year we are prepared to push faculty research forward in earnest and to prepare the ground for establishing the Graduate School for the whole University in the fall of 1966. This is a vital part of the University's development and the University cannot exist without it. It is most heartening for m e to be able to announce that the Ford Foundation hasfinally put Hong Kong on its map, giving The Chinese University a grant of 2