11 june 2010
Hong Kong University Graduates Association Education Foundation
“Shaping the Education Landscape –HKU beyond its 1st Centenary”
Speech of Dr. C.H. Leong
11 June 2010
Dear Alumni, Members of the HK University Graduates Association Education Foundation, Friends, Ladies and gentleman:
Let me begin by thanking the Foundation for inviting me to the 10th Anniversary Dinner. My heartfelt congratulations on your 10th birthday and look forward to more to come. It is indeed gratifying to see our own alumni doing our very best to promote quality education in HK through establishing schools and colleges. Through you, the motto, the spirit, the culture “Sapientia et Virtue” of HKU will glow forever and flourish.
As for myself, it is really a great honour and pride to be able to return to serve the alma mater after graduating in 1962.
I was asked to address you tonight on a topic, “Shaping the Education Landscape –HKU beyond its 1st Centenary”. It is a very challenging topic indeed for me, a non-educationist, rather I am just a simple minded surgeon, especially when Andrew Fung’s order and I quote “ Not just repeatedly saying how excellent HKU has been in the past and up to now”. Yes, we are No. 1 in the league table of Asian Universities, but do not forget, reaching there is easy, maintaining it is difficult. The burden will be not just on the Senior management of the University, the teaching and research staffs and students, but also on us as alumnus to place and sustain the flag of HKU on the highest pinnacle.
I thought I would address you tonight on 3 areas:
- The changing role of universities in a changing society,
- The strength, which may well be the weakness of our alma mata,
- The challenges and how these way propel us to the way forward.
Many of these are my personal thought, which I hope to engage the university and the alumni to bring them to fruitions. Hopefully too, these thought will constitute the basic brushes of the whole picture of HKU of the next century.
The changing role of university
It was always thought that a university is just a place of training. A place for training vocational skills, training graduate employees for industries and acting as training agencies for the economy. Indeed, many universities may well start off on such a platform. The precursor of the own alma mater 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 has celebrated its 120th year of medical education, 2 years ago 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 collaboration with local tertiary institutes and scientific institutions all over the world. It takes on the role as part of the community, and grows and matures with the community. The same is the direction for our 9 other faculties.
While universities in the past are often epitomized 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 the global community.
The university of today is therefore for whole-person 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! “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 our alma mater. Today the funding from the Government through the University Grants Committee (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 is no shortage.
We have to show the philanthropists that contributing to the universities in any way 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. Philanthropy does not confine only in financial support, nor is this the only way that our society is helping our future pillars of Hong Kong. Examples abound where our students, our graduates are obtaining a lot of support through mentors & mentorship programmes, through providing internship & exchange for students to widen their horizon, just to mention a few.
It will be hard work for the Senior Management, but it can be done, especially with our strong alumni. In fact, we are not doing too badly. To with, we have now accumulated – endow chair and more will me coming.
Our strength which may well be our weakness
Perhaps the biggest strength that we have is our 100 years history. It will bring us the confidence from local and international community.
It also established for us a solid foundation of scholastic achievements and researches. It has help to accumulate a sizeable alumni, many are occupying influential positions in the society, locally and abroad.
But this 100 years pride, may well be our baggage and our weakness. With 100 years history, any thing that you do good is taken as a matter of fact, any slight mishap is unforgivable. When you seek donations, the answer has always been that you are already so well established and accumulate with so many reserves, you don’t need more.
Yes, we have a sizeable alumni, but regrettable to say, there is insufficient bondage nor is there an issue to bind us together. Newer university with a short history always use the “underdog” attitude to bind their graduates -- we are the “二奶仔”, we must group ourselves together to beat HKU.
A 100 year old history means that many rules and regulations, management styles and governance that shaped this great institute perhaps could be outdated. Yes, they were tiptop then. Yet, the society is changing, there are calls for more transparency, more staff, students and public participations. Changing them is not easy, especially, in the presence of “academic autonomy”, but it must be done.
A 100-year-old institute often tends to live in past glory and we may not really be moving with community needs. HK, for example, pride itself in being the Financial centre of China if not Asia, but we do not even have a School of Finance in HKU. Ageing population is the talk of town and a global concern, we need a stronger Department or school in HKU to take the lead.
Let me hasten to add that I say all these not as a means to criticize, rather I hope that we should make better use of our one hundred years history to catapult us into the next century and not as an excuse to bath in the glory of the past. Moving forward is a must, standing still is not an option.
Challenge that propel us the way forward
Let me now more to talk about some imminent and mid-term challenges that your alma mata will be facing. Hoping as the Chinese saying goes 有危才有機 “Danger brings opportunities”, these will propel us on the way forward:
First and foremost, we need better bondage of our alumni and we need the society and community to know us more. I have already spoken at lengths in this. I hope however to make use of our Centenary as a means to push these issues forward. A better organized set of Centenary programmes could rekindle the passion that we all are products of this University. Proper organized programmes in the name of the Centenary Celebration can send the message to the community that this is the University of the community and for the community and that members on this university is to produce products or manpower to serve the community needs.
We need to internationalized. More international staff brings more outlands expertise and new ideas. Opening our doors to more non local students enhance our motto, for not only are we task to drawn people for our own community, but for the world. It also enhances the global perspective of own local students. I am award that we are hampered by government regulations that the quota for non-local students should not exceed 20%, we have to lobby to have that increased, especially for self funding students. At the same time, there is no restriction for postgraduates.
We need to be a 重點 University of China. Yet, we must be different from the other universities in China. It is a different balance. When more and more academics and students are attracted by the rising economy and international position of our Motherland, HKU should not be left out. On the same time, we have to maintain our separate identity, our independent system, our freedom of speech and thoughts. This will remain our attractions.
We need to expand. Yes, in 2 years time, our western extension will be complete and we will be blessed with an underground stations in the vicinity. This extension will boost the Faculty of Art and Law. But this is NOT enough.
Our University is so much limited by lack of space, lack of grants for research, even lack of teaching materials, in particular in our Medical and Dental Schools.
Opportunities aroused. The hint came from the authority to invite us to look into establishing a HKU faculty in Shenzhen. While it may be sometime before details could be formalized. Your University is your actively pursuing 4 possible ventures:
We are being offered to run and manage a 2,000 bed hospital. We hope to make it into a comprehensive public hospital for teaching and service and research using the HK culture. If successful, it will be a win win win situation. It will be a win for HKU to expand teaching and research and to tap the vast China material. It will be a win for Shenzhen, they can claim that they have a world class and world type of management hospital. It will be a win for the Central Chinese government, for this hospital could well b y the role model of health care reform.
We are offer a site for the constructive and development of a science and research building. Details are not being work out to more some of our research up worth and to work out partnership with Mainland Universities. Research grants are abundant in the Mainland and with HKU geographically in Shenzhen, we can tap those resources.
We are offered a sizeable piece of land for an extension of HKU Campus. No it will not be a new university. It will be HKU’s extension.
Finally, the Faculty of Dentistry has already signed an MOU with Shenzhen allowing it collaborate on a Dental and Oral surgery school.
All these are in the pipeline, whether, they will succeed, when will they materialize depend on our efforts on negotiating with the Shenzhen government. To me, “where there is a will there is a way”. The result CEPA is very much on our side.
Mr Chairmen, ladies and gentlemen, I have said too much. As a non-educationist. I believe that the university of the future should not just be an institute for tertiary learning, but rather and education hub for nurturing future pillars to serve not just HK, not just Chian, but the world. HKU must take the grid position.
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