Expansion in the wings for academy
The Academy for Performing Arts plans to add a nine-storey building to its Wan Chai campus to cater for more undergraduate students.
The plans also include adding a new floor to the existing five-storey building.
The academy is introducing four-year undergraduate programmes in September, in line with the new '3+3+4' academic schedule that has students spending six years in secondary school and four at university.
Academy associate director Herbert Huey Man-chiu said of the new degree programmes: 'These won't be three-year programmes with an extra year added.
'We have reinvented our curriculum by taking into account the needs of the arts industry as well as the kind of people we want to cultivate. We hope to strengthen our students' communication and language skills.'
Leung said the academy would be trying to recruit more people trained in stage production, such as lighting, sound, costumes, props and stage design.
The academy, which has had first-year enrolments of 200 to 300 in past years, expects to take in 50 to 70 more this year and will increase staff numbers by 20 to 30.
The nine-storey building will add 10,000 square metres to the campus. Rooms with high ceilings in the existing building will get mezzanine floors.
Council chairman William Leung Wing-cheung said the new building would not be an eyesore on the harbourfront.
The academy intends to submit a HK$390 million budget request to the Legislative Council in May and hopes to complete the project as early as 2014.
For now it will rent two floors in a commercial building in Hennessy Road.
Meanwhile, a change in leadership looms, with academy director Kevin Thompson stepping down on August 31 after eight years. A worldwide recruitment exercise began at the end of last year.
750
The number of undergraduates at the academy. It intends to take in an extra 50 to 70 students in the next academic year
