Bulletin Report of The Commission on The Chinese University of Hong Kong March 1976

to remind intransigent internal contestants that a higgledy-piggledy program (or even one which is just “a little more of everything") will be unlikely to win respect or approval for a satisfactory grant for the period ahead. 32. It is surely in this context that the terms academic control and self- government are to be most fully understood. Many academics (in pursuit of scholarship) would gladly forego (except as their sense of duty constrains them otherwise) service on the innumerable committees which proliferate on every campus in every country. But none can conscientiously contract out of the great periodic assize in which the past is evaluated and the future is prospected. For this is a strictly academic task of immense responsibility which calls for the best professional insights of the individual members of the university community: involving their sense of movement of ideas in their own fields and the relationship of these fields to other areas of discovery and scholarship ； demanding from them, too, the identification of the teaching material which will best prepare the next generation for the intellectual tasks that will await them ； and an imaginative insight into the relevance and applications of their studies as contributions towards the solution of mankind's enduring problems such as hunger, poverty, conflict and distrust. 33. In concluding these remarks about academic participation in universit government we wish to record our view that it is entirely right for a university council to be representative of both the academic and the lay interests in the university's affairs. It is to the great benefit of the university that men prominent in the life of the community should identify themselves with the conduct of the university's business. And it must be good for such laymen to meet with the academic point of view at the practical level of the council chamber. It must be good, too, for those who are entrusted with the administration of the university to be subject to the different viewpoints and experience of responsible lay members of the community. At the same time, however, in view of the remarks we have made about academic participati in university governance, we believe it would be wise for The Chinese University of Hong Kong to give serious consideration to enlarging the academi staff element in the composition of the University Council, and we are encouraged at having received some support for this suggestion from weighty lay opinion in the Council. 34. In a practical world, where resources are not unlimited, the fragmenta and separation of authority over fields of study almost inevitably must lead to duplication (or multiplication) of effort in certain areas and to the neglect of others. Undernourishment, if not impoverishment, of both teaching and research ensues. By making better use of resources improvements should be possible. In our opinion, there is a consensus of view about this within the University. The differences begin with the discussion of the way integration should be effected. The Working Party left for subsequent discussion and resolution three possible lines of development. These were (a) Department-based ； (b) Faculty-based ； (c) Area-based studies. 35. We have to confess that we are not hopeful of progress along any of these lines for several reasons. First, objections have been raised by two of the Colleges to the several forms of integration suggested by the Working Party (see, for example, Section llA of the statement by the New Asia Board of Governors dated 29th May 1975 and paragraph 3(b) of the statement approved on 6th June 1975 by the Chung Chi College Board of Governors). It has been stated that the withdrawal of some subject departments from a College would prejudice the prospect of that College providing the genuine liberal education for its students to which it is committed. We feel there is substance in the argument that the essence of a College is that it embraces (2) The integration of departments of study