Bulletin Winter 1999

Thirty-ninth Congregation for the Conferment of First Degrees The University held its 39th congregation for the conferment of first degrees on 7th December, 1989 at the University Mall. His Excellency the Governor and Chancellor of the University, Sir David Wilson, officiated at the ceremony. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Charles K. Kao, addressed the assembly. 1,345 graduates received their first degrees this year, of whom 309 were conferred the degree of bachelors of arts, 271 bachelors of business administration, 101 bachelors of medicine and bachelors of surgery, 315 bachelors of science and 349 bachelors of social science. Bachelor's degrees in four subjects - Chinese and English, business administration, music, and social work were conferred this year to 106 students taking part-time undergraduate studies. Ad d r e ss b y the V i c e - Ch a n c e l l o r Mr. Chancellor, honoured guests, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen of the graduating class of 1989’ First of all, I would like to extend my best wishes to the graduating class. Every graduate of this University is an encore demonstration of the indomitable spirit of the human mind for knowledge, for preparedness, for professionalism and for determination. A l l of you are eagerly ready to make contributions during a time when momentous events are taking place all over the world. This has been the experience of the graduates of The Chinese University of Hong Kong throughout its 26 years of history. This year is no exception and the coming years w i l l bring further encores. Yet, ladies and gentlemen of the graduating class of 1989, your challenges are unique and may well be different f r om your predecessors and f r om those following you in the years to come. The relentless progress of technology, the ominous accumulation of pollutant, the steady growth o f the human population, and the inevitable emergence of the global village w i ll continue. At the same time, the worldwide economic and political changes are altering the course of history. Mr. Chancellor, i n your capacity as the Governor of Hong Kong, you have given the tertiary education sector and Hong Kong a great opportunity , as well as a great challenge. Yo u declared, in your policy statement made at the opening of the Legislative Council this year, that the government of Hong Kong plans to expand the first year first degree places to 15,000 per year by 1995 from the current figure o f around 7,000. Undoubtedly, this move is prompted by the awareness of the future manpower needs of Hong Kong, both in replacing the talent losses due to emigration, and in anticipating the needs of the future society. We, at this University, concur with you on the necessity of taking this bold step, and, w i l l pool our effort with our sister institutions towards meeting this goal. Whil e we appreciate the rationale of establishing such an ambitious target, we, nevertheless, are concerned about the multitude of tasks that must be done, by the schools and also teachers training sectors t o further improve the quality of education, and by the tertiary institutions to make sure that the competence level of the graduates is not compromised, befor e the goal can be achieved. May I now turn to the recent development of this University, and show that our actions are anticipating the future human resource requirements of Hong Kong. 2