Bulletin Number One 1982

New Approach to Selection of University Students Due to the acute shortage o f places fo r higher education, the young people o f Hong Kong must subject themselves to a series o f highly competitive examinations i f they aspire to a place in one o f the tertiary institutions. There are at least three such public examinations to be taken w ith in two years after they complete Form 5: the Certificate o f Education Examination (CEE) at the end o f Form 5, the Higher Level Examination (HLE) at the end o f Form 6 ， and the Advanced Level Examination (ALE ) at the end o f Form 7. And only a minute fraction o f them, probably not more than seven or eight out o f one hundred, w ill be eventually successful in obtaining places fo r full-time higher education. I t is therefore only natural that many students tend to regard the sole purpose o f their last two or three years in school as preparing fo r examinations, to keep them on the steep climb up the educational ladder. The harmful and lasting effect o f such a mentality has already been pointed out by many educators, especially school principals, and it has been generally accepted that the overall development — physical, emotional, cultural, intellectual - o f generations o f young people has been adversely affected by these examinations. The University has been keenly aware o f this unsatisfactory situation fo r some time, but there is relatively little the University can by itse lf do about the overall provision o f higher education, or, fo r that matter, about the tota l number o f places it has to offer. However, the University has been concerned w ith the situation, and as far back as 1980 started considering deemphasizing examination results and widening the scope o f assessment o f applicants fo r University places. This then led to a revision o f the admission procedure. Starting in 1981, assessment o f applicants has become a more sophisticated exercise involving a wider set o f criteria including HLE results, CEE results, school records, recommendations by school principals, and in many cases ， also the performance at interviews. Naturally the proper balance o f such a wide range o f criteria in the final assessment would not be easy. Nevertheless, the policy has been set, and the University has already gained two years' experience in the exercise. I t is expected that the system w ill continue to be improved during the next few years before a stable pattern emerges, and students can be tru ly appraised on their overall qualities. The University is now turning to a related problem, namely, the complicated examination system w ith which school leavers have to cope. Again this is not something the University can by itse lf change. As a matter o f fact the University would like very much to see a uniform system o f six- year secondary education followed by a four-year university education established fo r Hong Kong, in line w ith international norm, but this does not 32