Bulletin No. 1, 2011

Keeping Posted on a Former Vice-Chancellor 19  well), except those specializing in law and medicine who must study in Hong Kong because of the local protectionism of these two professions. If Hong Kong universities cannot even attract local talent to stay in Hong Kong, their claims to international excellence sound hollow. However, in order for a world-class university to emerge from Hong Kong, the appropriate deployment of educational and research resources becomes a priority issue. One reason why Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Stanford can become world-class is because they have access to more educational and research resources. Hong Kong does not have sufficient resources to enable all of its universities to become world-class. Thus, if the development of a world-class university or two is a goal, educational and research resources, especially the latter, will have to be focused on one or two universities. An egalitarian allocation simply will not do it. The conversion from a three-year to a four-year normative university curriculum in 2012 should however greatly improve the educational experience of the undergraduates. The Chinese University used to offer a four-year curriculum until the mid- 1990s, when it was forced by the then colonial government to change it to a three-year one. It should therefore be well positioned to embrace this conversion. Three years are just too short a period to allow a young person to acquire general knowledge in a wide spectrum of subject areas and a broad range of educational experiences. Moreover, a four- year curriculum also provides a young person with greater flexibility—he or she can change majors in mid-stream, can double major, can add a minor, etc., and still graduate in time. From 2012 on, Hong Kong students will spend one year less in secondary school and in return will be able to spend one extra year at university. This is an excellent trade-off. They will have time to gain exposure to new subject areas and try out new experiences, including going abroad for academic exchange or taking up an internship. All in all, it is a very positive development. W hat do you see as the most far- reaching thing you did for CUHK while being its Vice-Chancellor? L ooking back, the most important thing that I did may have been the establishment of the smaller and fully residential new Colleges. As you know, the college system is the bedrock of the CUHK heritage. Every undergraduate student at CUHK belongs