19 September 2007

Graduation Address to the University of Aberdeen
on the occasion of the Honorary Degree Conferment Ceremony
(presented by Lord Wilson of Tillyhorn)

Dr. C. H. Leong

Mr. Chancellor, Mr. Principal, Dr. Fong, fellow Aberdonians, honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen,

I am grateful to the University of Aberdeen for the invitation to address this august congregation.

With your permission, Mr. Chancellor, I would like to speak both as a member of the Aberdeen University Family and as a senior if not a senile member of Hong Kong community.

Tonight is not only an occasion for the conferment of Honorary Doctorate but a gathering of academia, University doyens and philanthropists. On the podium, Mr. Chancellor is yourself who pioneered the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, who spearheaded the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine and who now heads Peterhouse of the University of Cambridge and directs the University of Aberdeen. Together with the vision and vigour of Principal Professor Duncan Rice, that ancient university of some 500 years old is now a world acclaimed bastion of learning and research, much in the field of medical sciences. On the podium is of course Dr. Henry Fong, the man the University is honouring today. Dr. Fong is a well known figure in Hong Kong. He is a philanthropist of unfathomed dimension not just in Hong Kong, not just in his native motherland but also the world. For this he has been honoured by universities and cities round the world from Australia to Russia, from Hong Kong to Aberdeen.

It may therefore be timely for me to say a few words on the universities and the philanthropists.

Many would take a university as a place of training. Only „o a place for training vocational skills, training graduate employees for industries and acting as training agencies for the economy. Indeed, many universities may well started off on such a platform. The precursor of my own alma mater the University of Hong Kong was the College of Medicine for Chinese which was founded for the sake of training Chinese to become doctors to practice western medicine. The University of Hong Kong is this year celebrating its 120th year of medical education, its medical school has moved on much more beyond the training of doctors, rather it is actively engaged in medical education, not only for Hong Kong, nor just for Chinese, but for the international communities. It is also very much involved in scientific research, in collaborate with local tertiary institutes and scientific institutions all our the world. It takes on the role as part of the community, and grows and matures with the community.

While universities in the past are often epitomize as edifices shrouded in secrecy for the training of chosen elites under the support and auspicious of the government or the state, today, tertiary institutions are institutions without walls, they are parts of the community responding to the needs of the community, and grows with the community, and as the world is getting smaller „o the global community.

The university of today is therefore for education, to prepare their graduates for capacity to reason, to enable them to analyze and be able to learn, and to prepare them for life. It is also a place for research, research not only on practical areas that society at large requires but innovative researches that might bear fruit, innovative creative researches that could only materialize in an environment of free academic exchange offered only in a university setting.

With such a wide ambit, it would be impossible for any government or the state to shoulder the bill for everything nor should any government or state do! In short to use Professor Duncan Rice¡¦s words, ¡§The universities must be prepared to look after themselves¡¨. Put it in practical terms ¡§any university must look into the community to seek the total community¡¦s support¡¨.

Controversies of course are expected. How far should universities move onto fundraising? How much time should senior academicians spend identifying potential donors from the community and cultivate relationship with them? Yet whether you approval of this culture or otherwise, it has comes and will stay. Take the example of the University of Hong Kong. Today the funding from the Government through the University Grant Community (UGC) accounts only for 40% of the university¡¦s total expenditure. In the arena of research, the situation is even more pitiful. UGC¡¦s funding for research merely accounts for 25% of the total amount the university needs. The community¡¦s support is therefore paramount.

Needless to say, the effect of fundraising depends very much on the generosity of the community through the culture of the philanthropists which in this city are no shortage.

To the philanthropists donating to the universities is not only an hounourable act but an investment into people through education, educating young people, people who will one day be the pillars of the society.

Mr. Chancellor, for the last 10 minutes or so I have dwell very much on what I believe a modern university should be and aim. It is indeed a proud moment for me to see that both my alma mater, the University of Hong Kong and my adopted parent, the University of Aberdeen are shining examples of success of such modern concepts. In this congregation today and around the world I can see many philanthropists who have and will contribute with no reservations to universities to educate our future generations for the better world tomorrow. I salute them all.

Mr. Chancellor, one might ask what about persons who does not posses the quality to lead a university nor has accumulated the capital to be a philanthropist. To me, I retreat to do my best to coordinate the universities and the philanthropists and take solace to the words of John Milton ¡§on his Blindness¡¨ ¡§They also serve, who only stand and wait¡¨.
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