Bulletin Spring‧Summer 2001

The 57 th Congregation for the Conferment of Degrees The57th congregation for th e Conferment of Degrees was hel d on 29th November, Thursday at the University Mall. Presiding at the ceremony was Prof. A r t h ur K.C. Li, the vice-chancellor. This year, five distinguished persons were awarded honorary doctorates : Dr. the Honourable An s on Chan, former Chief Secretary for Adm i n i s t r a t i on of the HKSAR, wa s conferred the degree of Doctor of Laws , honoris causa. Dr. Gao Xingjian, w o r l d famous Chinese w r i t er and Nobel laureate i n literature 2000, was awarded the degree of Doctor of Literature, honoris causa. Prof. Yuan Longping, an eminent agricultural scientis t and director-general of the China Na t i onal H y b r i d Rice Research and Development Centre, was awarded the degree o f Doctor o f Science, honoris causa. The degree of Doctor of Socia l Science, honoris causa, wen t to Dr. George H u n g Hon-cheung, chairman of the Board of Trustees of Ch u ng Chi College and an alumnus of the University w h o has made enormous contributions to the college and the University, and Dr. Eleanor Wong, a we l l - k n own textile industrialist and philanthropist. Their citations were w r i t t en an d delivered b y Prof. Serena Jin and Prof. Da v id Parker, the public orators. Dr . A n s on Chan addresse d the congregation on behalf of the honorary graduates. A total of 4,137 degrees were also conferred on th e occasion. As Dr. Yuan Longp i ng could not attend the congregation, he was subsequently presented the relevant certificates b y the vice-chancellor on hi s visit to the campus o n 7th December. The four colleges, the Part-time Degree Programmes, and the Graduate School also he ld graduation ceremonies for their students on th e same day. 36