Bulletin Spring 1990

control of quality is exercised through the dean's executive role with veto power over appointment, substantiation, promotion, and removal from office. The University policy bodies - the Council, the Senate and the Academic and Administrative Planning Committee — and the Vice-Chancellor will act as checks and balances. The department chairman is responsible for the personnel and administrative affairs within the department. These include promotion assessment, teaching duty assignment, quality control and other administrative duties. Formerly, the department chairman was expected to be the academic leader of the field of studies offered by the department. This situation can no longer be sustained even if it is desired. Th e proliferation of any field of studies is so great these days that no one can be expected to be an overall expert providing academic leadership to the whole department single-handedly. The academic duties are therefore to be shouldered by the members of the board of studies together. The board of studies under the coordination of its chairman elected from among the directors of studies is responsible for the design and implementation of the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula, the dialogue with students on academic matters, the admission and counselling of students, and all other academic affairs. The deans are currently elected for a three-year term. Constitutional changes will be initiated to enable deans to serve as many terms as necessary to ensure continuity in administration. The chairmen of departments w i l l be appointed by the Vice-Chancellor through a nomination process for a term of three years in future. Duties of Students Students are expected to assume duties. Besides their traditional duty of seeking knowledge for their own advancement, they are expected to put forward constructive suggestions to the board of studies or a specific teacher on teaching-related matters, such as improvement of tutorials and academic counselling, through whatever channels are deemed appropriate. The students should appreciate that while the primary responsibility of the teachers is to educate them, teachers have other duties and activities which have a great deal of bearing on meeting educational objectives. If a teacher neglects research or contacts with the community, his teaching may be highly lacking in perspective and modem day relevancy. The students should not expect to be spoon-fed. They should challenge the method of teaching if only book work is presented and when questions and discussions do not require independent thinking. Some may not like the style of a certain teacher, a result of a p rsonality mismatch perhaps, while others in the same class may find the style very exciting. The excellence of teaching is measured not only by the calibre of a teacher, but also by how serious and conscientious he regards his duty as a teacher or a professional. A further point is to do with the examination associated with each course. It is the responsibility of the teacher and the students to ensure that examinations are conducted fairly. The aim is to use a scheme t test the students' appreciation of the course against an expected standard. I n an examination associated with a certain course, the teacher is measuring the success of his teaching and the students are assuring the teacher that they have attained the level expected. If the students are eager to learn and the teacher to teach, there should be no examination pressure. Ot her News To complete this letter, a number of news items are included here for information. (1) The University has been notified by the University and Polytechnic Grants Committee that the total student number will increase to a target of 11,500 by the 1994- 95 academic year. (2) Reo r gan i za t i on of the Un i ve r s i ty Secretariat has been completed, but it will take several months for the administrative functions to be properly realigned and staffed through redeployment and additions. (3) With the new registrar, Dr. L.M. Ng, assuming the office from 19th March, realignment of the Registry functions is underway. Some of the tasks have already been decentralized to the departments. Besides student records, classroom assignment and time-tabling will continue to be centrally controlled for at least three more years when space problems are expected to be serious due to the planned expansion and the mismatch in the timing of the building projects. May I thank you again for all the contributions you are making to this university. Until the next letter, my best wishes to you all. NEWS 7