Bulletin Spring‧Summer 1996

Life is full of the unexpected. Nobody can predict accurately what will happen to themselves during their lifetime. No community knows for certain what will happen from one generation to another. People seize opportunities as they come. Communities — successful communities — do the same with the opportunities and have the resilience to weather the storms. Many years ago I was a student on the other side of the harbour at one of Hong Kong's other great universities, the University of Hong Kong. I never dreamed then that one day I would have the great honour and pleasure to be at a ceremony like the one today. Indeed, so long ago was it that this university, i n its highly successful united form, did not yet exist. But then I never imagined either that I would find myself doing many of the other things that have occurred between those years and now, let alone having for a time the immense privilege and responsibility of being governor of this unique and remarkable territory. This personal link between Hong Kong's two oldest universities is, I feel, symbolic. Symbolic of the cooperation that increasingly exists between all of Hong Kong's growing number of universities and institutions of higher education 一 a cooperation that must be strengthened i f all those institutions are to play the role they should in the education of Hong Kong's young people and therefore in the future of Hong Kong in its broadest sense. 15