| 
|
|
Departure
Scheme
The Management Board, on 5 December, approved
the launch of the Departure Scheme, one of the two staffing measures approved
by a recent Council meeting to tackle budget constraints. The voluntary
Scheme, aiming at cost savings, will invite applications from 15 December
2003 to 14 February 2004. Only substantiated staff on superannuation terms
can apply.
An advisory board, to be
chaired by Prof Y S Wong, VP (Admin), with Prof
P S Chung, (EE), Mr James Ng, ED(CTEX) as members
and Dr Ellen Ko, D(HRO) as secretary, will be set up
to make final approvals, with input and comments from department heads.
Decisions will be communicated to applicants by 31 March 2004 and the
effective date of departure is set on 30 June 2004. Departing staff shall
not normally be re-engaged by the University for the same or equivalent
position.
Ex gratia payment to departing
staff will be calculated with a formula for redundancy purpose set by
the Council two years ago. It will be paid out by the University central
administration, but staffˇ¦s leave balance will be borne by departmental
budgets. Under the voluntary scheme 2001, a predecessor of the Departure
scheme, 100 applications were approved.
|
|
| Salary
cuts
When the deadline closed on 12 December to give consent to the
University to achieve the 3%+3% across-the-board salary cut on 1 January
2004 and 2005, 96% of staff said "yes". To a few who did not
reply or agree to the arrangement, the University, through the Human Resources
Office (HRO), will issue a second letter on 20 December inviting consent.
To those who still do not consent, the University will terminate their
contracts and re-negoitate new ones at reduced salaries and benefits,
as approved by the Council.
|
|
| Matching
grants
The University will announce its latest results in the Government Matching
Grants Scheme before Christmas. It is believed that donation work has
been picking up momentum and showing satisfactory progress, particularly
in the last few weeks. Under the scheme, every dollar the local universities
raise from their staff, alumni and the community is entitled to apply
for an equivalent amount from the government.
|
|
| Changes
to staffing committees
Following
the appointment of the Deputy President, Prof David Tong,
the Management Board approved a wide-ranging change, with immediate effect,
to the constitution of staffing committees. The Deputy President will
serve as member, or chair, and nominate or select members to a number
of staffing committees on promoting and appointing chair professors, professors
and associate professors on Scale A, deans/provost/academic heads.
|
|
| Budget
2005ˇV08
The University has been given the understanding that the
University Grants Committee will communicate the indicative figures for
the 2005ˇV08 triennium budget to the higher education sector by the end
of February 2004. This not only has major implications on how the University
will tackle its future fiscal challenges, but in practical terms, it will
have bearing on, for example, setting the scale of the Departure Scheme,
the extent and severity of various measures needed to trim central and
departmental budgets, and the urgency of new staffing policies to help
meet the budget challenges in the next few years.
|
|
Student
Residence ProjectˇXPhase II
When the second phase of the Student Residence is completed
in February or March 2004, the number of places available to undergraduates
will be increased to 1,819 from 818. With the increase, there is a greater
chance for students to stay for two semesters instead of one, the current
arrangement. To date, Phase I of the Student Residence project has been
a fully self-financing operation.
|
|
| New
R&D centre
The
new FutianˇVCityU Mangrove Research Centre, led by Prof Y S Wong,
Chair Professor of Biological Science, was launched in Shenzhen
13 December.
|
|
| Joint
programme
The
Department of Accountancy signed on 13 December an agreement with Harbin
Institute of Technology on a joint Master of Arts in International Accounting.
The programme is to be offered in Shenzhen.
|
|
| Kudos
A three-person project on Mobile
E-credit Card System led by Geng Chunya, an MPhil student
in the Department of Physics and Materials Science, won the Gold Award
in the Mobile Multimedia Communications Design Contest 2003 organized
by the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers.
|
|
More
Kudos
CityU ranks second in the overall results from the Hong Kong and Macau
section of the 8th Challenger Cup Competition, a national intervarsity
contest for academic, science and research. Individual award winners are:
Distinction Award: Kenji Yum and Liu Yangfan
(EE) ; second Prize: Thomas Wu (AP), Daphne Lai
(SCM), and Steven Yang (EE); Third Prize: Anthony
Ou (SA) and Francis Kwong (CS).
|
|
Still
more kudos
SoftEnable
Technology Ltd., a CityU Enterprises Ltd company, won the first prize
(Health Category) of the Asia-Pacific Information and Communication Technology
Award (APICTA) 2003 on 8 December for its Computer-Assisted Orthognathic
Surgical Planning System (CASSOS). APICTA is annual international award
organized by the Association of Thai Computer Industry. It attracted more
than 100 entries from 14 countries this year.
|
|
Lunch
time concerts
16 and 18 December, 1:00ˇV1:30 pm at Green Zone 4/F and
Covered Terrace, respectively, by Staff Association Singing Group.
|
|
Corrections
In Bulletin 5, the item on salary cuts should read: "All
full-time regular staff are subject to the salary reduction, except those
appointed before 1 July 2003 on 'delinked' entry salary for the first
year of employment. Temporary/term/part-time staff will also be affected
by the reduction, except those who are appointed before 1 July 2003 and
the salary offered is either fixed or not strictly pegged with the University's
salary scalesˇK"
|
|
|
| Back
to Bulletin archive |
|
