Hong Kong 2006 - Education

To ensure that no student is deprived of education due to lack of means, the Student Financial Assistance Agency provides means-tested financial assistance to needy students in the form of fee remissions, grants and low-interest loans for pre-primary to tertiary education. The agency also administers non-means-tested schemes of assistance and privately funded scholarships awarded on the basis of academic merits.

At the pre-primary education level, financial assistance covers partly or fully the fees for attending kindergartens, kindergarten-cum-child care centres or child care centres. In the 2005-06 school year, fee remission totalling $544.2 million was granted to 58 035 pupils.

Assistance for needy primary and secondary school students takes the form of grants for the purchase of textbooks, subsidies for home-school travel and remission of tuition fees for senior secondary students in public sector schools. In the 2005-06 school year, $461.3 million was provided to 339 708 students for purchasing textbooks, and $285.8 million was disbursed to 222 947 students as travel subsidies. In addition, 94 088 Secondary 4-7 students were granted tuition fees remission, while 12 905 students taking Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination or Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination had their examination fees waived at a cost of $13.6 million.

At the post-secondary and tertiary level, grants, travel subsidies and low-interest loans are made available to needy, full-time students pursuing eligible courses at UGC-funded institutions, the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education of the Vocational Training Council, the Prince Philip Dental Hospital and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. In the 2005-06 academic year, $903.4 million of grants and $435.5 million of loans were provided to 34 035 students.

Eligible students pursuing accredited, self-financing post-secondary education programmes leading to a sub-degree qualification were provided with a grant or a loan to cover tuition fees. In the 2005-06 academic year, $206.5 million in grants and $101.2 million in loans were provided to 9 183 eligible students. The means-tested financial assistance scheme for these students was improved during the 2006-07 school year, with a projected increase in grant disbursement to about $535 million. Travel subsidies totalling $100.4 million were also provided to 39 159 students of all post-secondary institutions.

Financial assistance for meeting tuition fees, academic expenses and living expenses also takes the form of non-means-tested loans, which are interest-bearing on a no-gain, no-loss basis to the Government. They are available to students pursuing eligible full-time or part-time publicly funded or self-financing local award-bearing programmes as well as professional or continuing education courses provided in Hong Kong by registered schools, non-local universities and recognised training bodies. In the 2005-06 academic year, 29 523 people received non-means-tested loans of $1,040.6 million.

The Student Financial Assistance Agency administers a number of privately funded scholarships and assistance schemes for students. Scholarships are mainly merit-based and provided for both local studies and overseas studies.

The Government provides all Project Yi Jin students with a 30 per cent reimbursement of tuition fees paid for each module that has been successfully completed. For needy students who pass a means test, the tuition fees paid are fully reimbursed.

A $5 billion Continuing Education Fund was launched in June 2002 to subsidise adults who wish to pursue continuing education and training courses in specified sectors. Eligible applicants are reimbursed 80 per cent of their fees, up to $10,000, on successful completion of a reimbursable course or module forming part of the course. Over 338 900 applications had been received by the end of 2006.