IF high academic standards must start from high-quality students, then a University and Polytechnic Grants Committee (UPGC) proposal for Hong Kong's tertiary institutions to ''incorporate centres of excellence having local, regional and international functions'' may improve matters.
A key element of the proposal envisages the recruitment of ''undergraduate students and many postgraduate students'' from outside Hong Kong - that is, China.
At the postgraduate level, this is already happening with an increasing number of graduate students from China doing research at local institutions.
This is because most local students prefer to seek employment after getting a first degree and the small number who decide to pursue a higher degree usually prefer to go overseas to broaden their horizons.
If another UPGC proposal to increase the number of places for post-graduate studies from the existing 5,959 to 8,705 in 1988 is to be carried out, there is simply no way most of those places can be filled by local students.
China is the most logical alternative source of graduate students as few from the West are likely to consider coming to Hong Kong.