16.3 Students were first admitted to the new Basic Studies
programme in September 1979. The new Senior Diploma course started in September 1980. So there has not yet been a throughput of students from the Basic Studies programme to the Diplomas. The 1980 intake to the Senior Diploma is therefore not typical but it is at present the best basis possible for comparison with the Polytechnic. Of the students applying to enter the College 140 put Civil Engineering as their first choice, 54 were enrolled. Members understand that the government has placed a limit on the number of students the costs for whom it will subsidise the College, and that in Civil Engineering this number is below 50 at present. During the first semeter 22 students withdrew. Some transferred to the Polytechnic and some to other institutions. Five students were admitted by the College as exceptional admissions from an intermediate stage in the Basic Studies programme so that at the time of the visit there were 37 students on the first year of the Diploma programme. Of the students admitted with HKAL qualifications or equivalent the grade point average based on the two best A levels was 2.2, where A=5, B=4, C=2; and the grade point average of the best five 0 levels was 3.5. The majority of the A level grades lay between C and E.
16.4 Turning now to the Polytechnic; the nominal minimum
entrance requirements for both the Diploma and the Higher Diploma course is HKCE. (The two courses are quite separate and distinct unlike those at the Baptist College). However the high quality of applicants to the Higher Diploma has led to a substantial appreciation of the entry standard to that course. During 1979/80 and 1980/81 over 75% of students admitted had A level passes and for the students with A levels the net score for all the A levels was just under 11 points (A=5, B=4 etc.). This figure is based on the total A level score rather than on the best 2 A levels as is the case given above for the Baptist College. Nevertheless it is clear that the academic attainment standard of students entering the Higher Diploma at the Polytechnic is substantially higher than is the standard of students entering the Baptist College Diploma Course.
16.5
It should be noted that the Polytechnic does not admiṭ solely on the basis of A level grades. The Polytechnic grades its entrants in a complex fashion. It takes account of the results of the Hong Kong Certificate of Education, the Higher level and the A level results and provides a relative weighting between them as well as giving weightings for grades (it does not distinguish between GCE and Hong Kong level grades). The ratios can be varied from course to course. Staff consider that in
:Page 151