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of an emergency loan scheme for Hong Kong students already enrolled
on recognised first-degree (or equivalent) courses in Britain who
have been affected by the sharp increases in tuition fees for
overseas students. A longer-term scheme of financial assistance
for students intending to embark on tertiary courses in Britain is
also to be introduced. A review of the whole field of student
financing is now being undertaken by the government.
2.73 Adult and continuing education
Adult and continuing education
is provided by a wide range of organisations for widely varying
purposes. In the public sector both universities, the Polytechnic
and the Education Department are active in the field. In the private
sector activities tend to be centred on voluntary organisations such
as Caritas-Hong Kong (an agency of the Roman Catholic Church) and
the Young Women's Christian Association, on cultural organisations
such as the Goethe-Institut, the Alliance Française and the British
Council, and on educational establishments with extra-mural facilities,
such as the Hong Kong Baptist College. The field, however, is fragmented -
so much so, that at present it is difficult to obtain hard facts on
which a co-ordinated policy could be based. In this context even
the categorisations 'public' and 'private' are open to debate when
the complexities of financing are taken into account (the courses
offered by the extramural departments of the universities, for
example, are self-supporting, government expenditure being limited
by and large to administrative expenses, while on the other hand
some of the voluntary organisations in the private sector are now
receiving limited government subvention for specific projects which
observe principles laid down in the 1978 White Paper). Attempts to
draw the different strands of adult and continuing education together