HKU Bulletin November 2005 (Vol. 7 No. 1)

6 7 Although no final decision has yet been made as to what buildings the Western Expansion will contain, it is understood that lightly-serviced academic departments will be moved into that space in order to contain the overall cost of the Western Expansion. The Director of Estates, Wong explained that in addition to that the University is proposing small conference rooms, discussion rooms and a heavily-serviced area for information and communication technology to facilitate student learning. “We’re talking about space which can seat a maximum of 1,200 – 1,500 people be used flexibly with demountable partitions which can host public lectures, cultural events, conferences and graduation ceremonies. We want a friendly place for students, staff and maybe members of the public,” he added. “The University envisages making parts of the campus more open than it currently is to the local community. We’ve started to draw up a schedule of accommodation as to what that might contain but it’s early days yet and we need to do a lot of consultation with the likely end users.” The final result will be a campus more akin to those of North America and Europe. As McGraw pointed out: “It’s pretty clear that the current provision has a massive shortfall. We are a long way short in our physical estate in terms of the amount of space we provide per student and academic staff member. “Our provisions are way less than a North American or European urban university.” But with the completion of the Western Expansion and a new MTR station entrance at the Haking Wong steps it is hoped that the University will not only reinforce its unique identity as a green campus in an urban landscape, but will also achieve its committed goal of becoming one of the top universities in the world. And as Wong pointed out: “The whole University community as well as the wider public will be consulted to ensure that this exciting project will incorporate everyone’s aspirations and dreams.” DEVELOPMENT Size to Reflect Status A s a cosmopolitan global city Hong Kong deserves at least one world-class university. And as a comprehensive research-led, English language institution, The University of Hong Kong has been foremost in taking up that challenge. But despite its standing, the University’s growth has been restricted by the compactness of its campus. Indeed its size does little to reflect its status. So in 2000 the senior management took the first step towards realizing the University’s ambitions to grow beyond its current boundaries by unveiling the Millennium Master Plan. Central to that plan – a living, dynamic document that is being constantly updated and reviewed – is the University’s proposal for expanding westwards into an area of almost 14 hectares above Pokfulam Road. This thrust to the west will provide the University with a greener, more spacious environment that is more conducive to the holistic learning that is our hallmark, while also relieving congestion on the Main Campus. In these new grounds the University will build new state-of- the-art structures that will increase the current provision of lecture theatres, seminar rooms, common rooms, restaurant and cafes, etc. Also a venue is planned which will have the flexibility to host large and small scale events such as public lectures, cultural events and conferences. A new MTR station entrance, planned for the University by 2012, will bring the campus into the heart of the city. The expansion will move into an area ‘that is currently occupied by nothing more than Water Supplies Department government reservoirs’, according to former Director of Land Development, Malcolm McGraw. Although the reservoirs are currently being used, the plan suggests moving them to the back of the site leaving a vast area free for construction. Although McGraw, who retired from the University in June after 16 years, has handed the mantle of responsibility to Director of Estates, Kenneth Wong, McGraw nursed the plan from its beginnings back in the late 1990s. “The scheme that was originally drawn up envisioned us leaving the reservoirs where they are then building a platform over them and then erecting our structures on top of that,” he explained. The team proceeded from that idea towards a blueprint but then decided that the original proposal did not work. “So we moved to a different concept which is to separate the Water Supplies Department facilities and the University facilities. This was the type of option that was preferred and it’s quite a radical change from the original concept. But it’s also the most cost-effective,” added McGraw. This latest plan was presented to 16 government departments last December, and all likely objections to the project were considered. Chief among them are environmental issues such as tree loss and habitat destruction for rare species of flora and fauna. The trees that will be felled are not considered valuable, being imported exotics rather than native woodland, but concedes that a more detailed ecological study of the area will have to be pursued before the plan moves ahead. The government has, in principle, agreed to help with funding. The cost of the entire project is expected to reach $2.5 billion. And the University is expected to support a substantial part of that cost through donations and fund-raising efforts. Although the University retains a certain old-world charm, embodied in its 93-year-old Main Building, the spacious seclusion that once marked it out has been slowly eaten away over the decades. Today, the campus is a tiny oasis of green in a sea of urban sprawl. Its former wide spaces have been filled in with new buildings that welcome increasing numbers of students. Since the Hong Kong government, under the then Governor David Wilson decided to double the University participation rate from nine to 18 per cent between 1989 and 1995 the University has scrambled to accommodate the influx by ‘filling in the spaces’ on campus with more buildings and temporary structures. Changes to the academic curriculum allowing for four-year degree programmes by 2012 will demand even more space for an extra cohort of students. But despite the urgency of the expansion the philosophy behind the campus Master Plan is not all new. As McGraw explained, the idea extends back to the Cusdin Report of the mid-1970s which recommended future expansion of the campus towards the west along Pokfulam Road. A long-forgotten government land-use map also details the zoning of the Water Supplies land for government and community use and for ‘potential use’ by the University. In August 1999 the Institutional Development Sub-committee of the University Grants Committee endorsed the Master Plan and it became enshrined in the University’s Millennium Plan one year later. Kenneth Wong with Malcolm McGraw.