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

University. Financial provision for each College should be made annually by the Council of the University after appropriate consultation between the Head of the College and the Vice-Chancellor. Each College should have an approved budget to cover miscellaneous academic expenditure, expenses incurred in. creating a suitable cultural environment for its members, entertainm expenses, sundry administrative charges. The cost of academic staff salaries, superannuation, etc., would not appear in College budgets as such staff would all be University appointees (see paragraphs 76-77). Similarly, clerical and secretarial staff working in a college would be University employees though the Head of College or his representative would select them. Again, staff engaged on maintenance and similar work in a College would also be University employees. As salaries normally represent the largest part of the budget of an academic institution we would not expect the annual budget of a College under the system we propose to be very large. A College should, however, be allowed a measure of flexibility to vire between heads of expenditure at its discretion. We have already indicate the great importance we attach to flexibility ； we emphasize, too, the need for a sympathetic management of the accounts by the Central Finance Department. 91. We think that special consideration should be given to the degree of responsibility appropriate for Colleges in respect of catering. We are not sufficiently aware of the organisational problems involved to pronounce upon the matter, but experience shows that it can be a sensitive area, and we therefore think that the Council will wish to give careful thought to it. 92. Each College should maintain a College record of its students, such as would be required regularly by the Fellows in the fulfilment of their duties towards the students. 93. We regard it as inherent in the character of the organisation we envisag that a College should be free from bureaucratic arrangements to the maximum extent possible. If the senior and junior members who comprise the Colleges are to build a common life together, they need to be as free as possible from the distractions of mundane business. Some secretarial and clerical assistance will, of course, be needed in relation to the maintenance of records, the proceedings of the Assembly of Fellows and a variety of general purposes, but we do not see a need for any more substantial complem of staff. (V) Conclusion 94. We have reached the final stage of our Report. We hope that we have made clear our sympathy with much of the evidence we received. We believe that the time has come for a wider measure of academic participation in the government and administration of the University and its Colleges: we strongly advise the retention and consolidation of the federal principle, believing, as we do, that its influence in an academic community will be to encourage a fruitful interplay of ideas relevant to a world of continuing rapid change and a stimulating diversity of patterns of social ideals and behaviour ； we believe, too, that the University, having established its position in the sisterhood of universities and laid sound foundations, through its far-sighted policy of developing Research Institutes, will continue to make an increasingly valuable contribution (by individuals and research teams) to Chinese and international scholarship.