Newsletter No. 5

CUHK Newsletter Vol 1 No. 5 April 1990 Third Open Letter from the Vice-Chancellor • The VC issued his third open letter to all staff and students on 22nd March. In the letter, he calls on everyone to do their utmost to make the University a truly bilingual, multi-cultural, multi-disciplined university and a quality place of learning which can serve as a knowledge pool for the community and a stimulus to new enterprises in Hong Kong. He then goes on to discuss how, as the University is going in the direction of decentralization to better cope with growth and expansion, the duties of deans, department chairmen and boards of studies need to be redefined. To summarize, the responsibility of the dean will be to guide the overall development of he faculty, introducing or reconstituting areas of studies when necessary, allocating resources according to priority, and ensuring quality through appointment, substantiation, promotion and removal from office. The department chairman will be responsible for the personnel and administrative affairs within the department, including promotion assessment, teaching duty assignment and quality control. The board of studies w i l l be responsible for the design and implementation of the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula, the dialogue w i th students on academic matters, student admission and counselling and all other academic affairs. The VC also reminds students of their duties to seek learning for self-improvement, to put forward constructive suggestions on teaching related matters through proper channels, and to have a correct attitude towards course examinations, Credit Unit System 一 Implementation Details The Senate recently approved, with effect from the 1991-92 intake, the proposals on the details related to the implementation of the flexible credit unit system for bachelor's programmes other than medicine: (a) The minimum units required for graduation will be 123 units. (b) Secondary 7 entrants will be granted 24 units in recognition of their pre-university achievement; however they will be allowed to graduate only after all University and major programme requirements have been met. (c) Students in their first two years of attendance may take 36 units per year without exceeding 20 units in any one term and for the ensuing years 30 per year with 17 as the ceiling in any one term. (d) Professional programmes may have a higher ceiling and students with a ‘B+’ average in the preceding year may take the same maximum course load in their third or higher year as is permitted for their first two years, (e) Units taken from repeating a failed course (3 units or less) and units of the two University required PE courses will not count towards the course load in the term/year concerned. To allow Secondary 7 entrants greater flexibility in course selection, boards of studies have been asked to consider exemption of certain major required courses under their purview for those who have completed comparable A-level subjects. 1