Dr. Balu, Dept Head

My Words to the Graduates

Looking back at 1986, the City Polytechnic of Hong Kong (CPHK) was in its temporary campus in Mongkok, with no recreational facilities for its students. No CPHK computing graduates had yet entered the market. The four-year-long Professional Diploma in Computer Studies had no international recognition. Yet you took the courage to venture into this course. Four years later you have now graduated with an internationally recognized bachelor's degree in Computer Studies. You witnessed the visit of the UK Council for National Academic Awards panel in early 1987, and the visit of the British Computer Society panel in late 1987. You saw the move to the permanent campus in the summer of 1988 and, at the same time, the beginning of your industrial placement in the sandwich degree course. The industry had an early taste of what was going to come; and, they had no hestitation in openly declaring their enthusiasm for you all. Congragulations and thank you for acting as CPHK ambassadors.

This year, 1990, marks a turning point in your life. At the CPHK, it is seeing the formation of the Faculty System and the split of Computer Studies into Information Systems and Computer Science. Our industrial links became stronger with the inauguration of the HK$4 million joint UNISYS - CPHK research centre on Asian Language Development. The Master of Arts degree in Information Systems commenced, after a successful validation by the UK Council for National Academic Awards. A proposal for Master of Science degree in Computer Science was submitted to the Hong Kong Council for Academic Accreditation. About twenty students graduated in July with a Master of Science degree in Data Processing of the University of Ulster. (All teaching/examinations are conducted by CPHK staff here in Hong Kong for this course.)

You enter the Hong Kong Information Technology industry when it is facing an acute manpower shortage crisis. Young graduates in Hong Kong assume supervisory and leadership positions very early in their career, campared to their counterparts elsewhere in the world. Hong Kong is moving from a Newly Industrialized Country (NIC) to full fledged industrialized and sophisticated place akin to western countries. As such, it has an important role to play, in the modernization of the People's Republic of China. This, combined with the leadership role which you are expected to play rather early in your career, mentioned above, puts a heavy responsibility on your shoulders. Based on my observation of you all in raising to challenges and in tackling obstacles in the past four years, I am fully confident that you all will be shining stars of Hong Kong.

Best wishes and good luck to you all both in your professional career and in your personal life.

Dr. N V Balasubramanian

Head, Department of Computer Studies