I've found an extraordinary similarities of the Singapore medical training systems with Hong Kong tertiary education systems. That made me sweat, and at the same time, shiver.
100 years ago, we had only one university located at the Hong Kong island, whose purpose were to establish the influence of the British Colony in South-east Asia and allow the local Chinese to be educated in a Western manner. Surely, this University cultivated many talents and generated knowledge that had served Hong Kong so well in the next 100 years.
And then, after the PRC dominance in the mainland, some Chinese philosophers and educationists escaped to Hong Kong. In a bid to spread the Chinese culture, they set up colleges, which formed the backbone of alma mater. (This was a much simplified version. In fact, it was the British government which grouped these colleges to build the Chinese University, which angered the Chinese philosophers in the end. But in the end, who wanted to know these facts?)
Towards the end of the last century, one technological university was launched at the other end of our city. It was, as its name implied, a very practical institution whose aim was to make researches and developments. These three universities, were generally called The Big Three (三大), among all the tertiary institutions including the City College, Polytechnic College, Baptist College, so on and so forth.
It actually was a hierarchic pyramid. For those who wanted to govern, study medicine or engineering, they will go to HKU or CUHK or UST. For those wanted to specialize in technology, or learn Arts, they will go to the colleges. Our society needed everything from these institutions, as long as they produced at the right amount (and the right quality).
The system had run so well, until we were told that there would be a handover of the sovereignty.
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