Bulletin Autumn 1989

An Open Letter from the Vice-Chancellor Foll owi ng his f i r st open letter o f 8th April, 1989 to al l staff and students spelling out the broad objectives and directions o f the University f o r the coming f ew years, Professor Charles K. Kao, the Vice-Chancellor, issued his second open letter on 19th September on the progress that has been achieved so far. This is the f u l l text o f his recent letter: Since my first open letter in April 1989, much has happened in China that has posed serious questions in the minds of the people of Hong Kong. What should be the way ahead for The Chinese University of Hong Kong? I submit that the direction we set for ourselves, as outlined in my previous letter, remains the best one. Let me take this opportunity to add some details to the general statements made in my first open letter and to delineate the principal reasons more clearly. The aims of our policy are: (1) to improve the quality of teaching for the increasing number of undergraduate and postgraduate students and to encourage them to seek and experience a broader education, so that more graduates are well-prepared for many alternative choices. (2) to provide more linkages with the outside world for our staff through joint research and exchange programmes so that the quality of our researchopportunities canbe compared to an international standard of excellence. This would also help our staff to improve their effectiveness in teaching andresearch, increase their personalmerits and enhance the University's ability to recruit and retain staff. Since my first letter, an on-going task has been to review our promotion criteria and procedure to ensure that our colleagues on terms of services A, B and C are given fair rewards and the right incentive to contribute strongly towards achieving our common objectives. The duties of the faculty deans and department chairmen are being realigned to achieve a more responsive management structure. Both these tasks are still proceeding. As to the expansion of our student numbers to 20,000 by 2008, we are awaiting clarifica­ tion from the Univer­ sity and Polytechnic Grants Committee on our proposed faster expansion over the next decade and be­ yond. On these items, I shall report further in my next letter. In this letter, I shall report on the actions that have been taken towards meeting the objectives stated earlier. A more balanced and flexible curriculum On the recommendation of a committee chaired by Professor Ambrose King, theUniversity introduced anew credit unit system four years ago and abolished the degree examination system. After this initial period of operation, I have askedProfessor King to review the progress to date. He andhis small teamof Dr. P.W. Liu and Miss Linda Hu worked very hard over the last six months. Much consultation was made with many academic and administrative staff. A report recom­ mending some further improvement on the credit unit systemhas just been distributed for feedback from the boards of studies. The principal aim is to achieve the flexibility for which the credit unit system is designed. The target is to achieve abalance in academic require­ ments and work load of the students. Proper guidance for course selections and course examination proce­ dures is necessary. This system w ill also allow our University to establish joint courses with selected universities around the world, to produce quality graduates at the fastest rate feasible and with cost- effectiveness, to cope with awider spread of academic attainment and aspirations of incoming students, to offer a greater number of multi-discipline degree programmes, and to maintain a larger number of academic departments. A ll these elements are de­ signed to enable this University to perform well in the challenging years ahead. 9