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

44. The driving force of the subject department, the commonest unit of organisation in modern universities, has contributed to this situation. It is, of course, right and admirable that each subject department should advance its subject, for the university's duty is to carry out its teaching role in an atmosphere of discovery, and thus to give the undergraduate in his studies the feel of a community single-mindedly seeking the truth about the past, striving to unlock the secrets of the natural order or to understand the complexities of man's attempts to come to terms not only with nature but also with the diversity of his own kind. 45. We must therefore accept that a university by its nature is bound to be “subject-orientated", irrevocably devoted to the study and development of the subjects it embraces. But this function alone does not enable it wholly to fulfil itself. For it is truly also a place for the education of the young. If it should fall short in its performance of its role as teacher it puts its own future in jeopardy along with that of the wider society to which it belongs. In other words, it creates the future as much by its teaching as by its power through new discovery to bring about and to control change in the environment. Since it is our firm conviction that the true function of the Colleges within the University lies in a special contribution to undergraduate teaching we must now examine, at greater length, the educational opportunities which lie within the Colleges' reach. 46. Let us begin by making some general remarks about the student body. If it resembles its counterparts in other countries it will comprise young people (excluding the small proportion of postgraduates) within the age limits of, say, 18 to 22, who have recently shed the final remnants of their adolescence, who are achieving independence without impairing the dignity either of their parents or of themselves, and who, as individuals, are facing the stiffest intellectural tests they are likely ever to encounter, at the same time as they are making decisions about their personal lives and careers, of which the consequences will be profound and for the most part irreversible. Yet the members of the student body are also likely to differ from one another in important ways. Some will be the scholars of the next generation; they will probably follow postgraduate courses when they have won their first degrees. Others, much the greater number though by no means less talented, will go out into the world to carry responsibility in the various professions, including teaching, in the public services of every kind, in communications, finance, commerce, trade and manufacturing industry. If the minority are properly described as the scholars-to-be, the majority may best be called the "doers", the men and women of action, those who will carry the responsibility of decision. All, in their similarities and in their diversities, are a challenging responsibility laid upon the University. Clever, ambitious, carried along by the surging energies of their intellectual and emotional coming of age, they are the bridge between past and future, intellectual leaders in the making. 47. The University must seek to give to each group, and within each group ， to each individual what his or her nature and personality need. It is not for us to set out in detail what this means in academic terms, but we may perhaps be allowed to make a general comment which, we hope, may not be found unhelpful. This concerns the curriculum of the first degree. The curriculum must be for all the students. Put negatively, this means that a first-degree course of studies devised only as a suitable approach to post-graduate studies will not do for those students (whom we have called the "doers") whose academic careers will end with their first degrees. The search for a curriculum which satisfies the academic needs of both kinds of students, the potential scholars and the future “men of affairs", is fraught with difficulty. But such a one must be found. We go further and emphasize the importance of flexibility in the curriculum to accommodate not 3 1