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<p>CUHK Vice-Chancellor's Open Letter</p><p>-------------------------------------</p><p>Dear colleagues, students, alumni and friends:</p><p>A new academic year has just begun, and I wish to extend my warmest welcome to all newcomers to the big family of The Chinese University of Hong Kong.</p><p><strong>Quality student intake</strong></p><p>This year, our University continues to be the university of choice for aspiring youths, both local and non-local. We have admitted 196 top secondary six students through the Early Admissions Scheme, and 468 of the top 1,000 JUPAS applicants. Among the 254 mainland students who gained admission through the National Colleges Entrance Examinations, 18 are top scorers in their own respective provinces and municipalities. We are most gratified to have attracted young people of such high calibre to our campus.</p><p><strong>A multi-cultural campus </strong></p><p>We have also recruited 52 students from 16 countries and regions around the world. In addition, we shall be receiving 650 exchange students during regular term time, and some 500 others who will be coming to our campus for the international summer school. Most of them hail from the 200 odd universities that have exchange agreements with us. So what we have on our campus is a truly global community in miniature, epitomizing our belief in 'education without borders'.</p><p><strong>More opportunities for overseas exchange</strong></p><p>During the past few years, we have greatly increased the opportunities for our undergraduates to go overseas for exchange. We have also raised significant endowments to help subsidize the costs of outbound exchange. In 2007-08 alone, there were some 620 outbound exchange students, many of whom have reported that they had a wonderful exchange experience that is life-changing. We are working towards our goal that eventually every undergraduate student who wishes to go on exchange will be able to do so.<br/></p><p><strong>Quality Audit Report reaffirms CUHK's commitment to quality teaching and learning </strong></p><p>Many of us were involved in discussions with an audit panel of the Quality Assurance Council (QAC) last April. The QAC was established in early 2007 with the role of assuring the educational quality and learning experience of all programmes, at first degree level and above, offered by the UGC-funded institutions. One of its tasks is to conduct institutional audits of the internal quality assurance mechanisms at all the universities, and CUHK is the first university to be audited. To prepare for the exercise, we conducted a self-review in the summer of 2007 and documented our internal evaluation mechanism and its implementation in the form of an Institutional Submission. An audit panel of independent experts then paid a one-week visit to the University in April when they interviewed our staff, students and external stakeholders and studied the relevant documents.</p><p>The Audit Report was released by the QAC last Saturday, and I am pleased to inform you that the University has come out very well indeed in the audit with an extremely positive report. I can do no better than quote verbatim from the report:</p><blockquote><p><em>When considered in the context of the Report, the QAC findings confirm that CUHK is providing a high quality student learning experience that reflects its mission and role statement, underpinned by good quality assurance systems; and that these systems and the quality of teaching and learning will be enhanced further by implementation of the QAC's recommendations.</em></p></blockquote><p>You can find the full Audit Report and our Institutional Response to the audit findings on our website (through a direct link on the front page). </p><p><strong> rogress of a campus master plan</strong></p><p>The reversion from a three-year to a four-year undergraduate curriculum in 2012 will mean a permanent increase of 3,000 undergraduate students on our campus, who will need not only new colleges to give them the individual and quality care they deserve, but also additional teaching and research facilities and other amenities. We also need to upgrade and renovate our buildings and equipment so that we can keep abreast with the latest developments in the different fields and stay at the frontier of new knowledge.</p><p>We fully understand that much needed new facilities must be built in such a way that the environmental ambience of the campus is preserved. That is why we started two years ago to work on a Campus Master Plan (CMP), which will provide an overall framework for campus design, land use, conservation and landscaping over the next 15 to 20 years. After an open competition, Aedas Ltd and its overseas partner Edward Cullinan Architects (UK) were appointed in February 2008 as the consultant and architect of our CMP. Stage 1 studies and consultation were also carried out to establish the concepts and directions for the CMP. The consultants will present to us a Conceptual Planning Proposal later this month, and Stage 2 engagement activities will follow immediately afterwards. I urge you to participate actively in the series of briefing sessions and forums for different stakeholders to be organized in October, at which all will have the opportunity to share their views and contribute to the formulation of our campus master plan.</p><p><strong>Global search for Faculty Deans</strong></p><p>The University Council made an important decision in February 2007 to adopt a new system for appointing deans through an open and rigorous global search process. Search Committees for Deanship with broad-based Faculty representation have subsequently been set up for seven Faculties and worldwide searches launched. I am pleased to report that the search process for the Faculty of Medicine has just been completed and we are on track for the other Faculties.</p><p><strong>45th anniversary celebrations</strong></p><p>This year marks the 45th anniversary of our University. To celebrate four and a half decades of continuous development and achievement and to pay tribute to all those who have contributed to the University's success, an assortment of activities have been planned for the year, kicked off by the CUHK Carnival on 16 August in conjunction with the Olympic Equestrian Games. In the pipeline are a series of anniversary lectures, a photo contest, a singing contest and a drama competition for students, a special homecoming day for the alumni, an anniversary banquet, and other celebratory events organized by individual faculties, colleges, and research institutes. I cordially invite all members of the University to join in the fun and excitement, and look forward to greater support from the wider community in this anniversary year and the years leading to 2013, when we shall have a huge celebration for the University's Golden Jubilee.</p><p>Ten days into the first semester, our campus is full of activity and vibrant with our aspirations for continuous progress and greater achievements. I urge all faculty, staff and students to give your best in what you are doing, and wish you good health and a most fruitful year ahead.</p><p>Lawrence J. Lau<br/>10 September 2008</p><p></p> |
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发表于 2008-9-10 19:30:00
发表于 2008-9-10 23:42:00
