22
and for whom a place is available should be deprived of that place because
of financial need. Thus, generous fee remission scheme are available in
public-sector senior secondary and sixth forms, and maintenance grants
or interest-free loans (or both) are available to tertiary-level students
under specified conditions: this includes students in the technical
institutes, the colleges of education, the approved post-secondary colleges,
the two universities and the Polytechnic. The Secretariat of the UPGC
administers schemes for grants and loans to university and Polytechnic
full-time students. By the end of 1980, 5,008 grants and 6,486 loans
for university students and 1,551 grants and 4,120 loans for Polytechnic
students had been approved for the 1980-81 academic year. The total
financial assistance made available to individual students has been
Government
revised over the years to take account of increases in tuition fees and
costs of living. There have also been adjustments to the split between
grants and loans within the total sum of assistance to correct the
gradual drift in recent years towards higher loans and lower grants.
Further improvements to the scheme are under consideration.
financial assistance is not generally available to Hong Kong students
studying overseas though, as stated elsewhere, two loan schemes have now
been introduced to assist Hong Kong students already enrolled or intending
to enrol in recognised first-degree (or equivalent) courses in Britain
who have been affected by the sharp increases in tuition fees for overseas
students.
5.41
Needy pupils in government and aided primary schools who cannot
afford to buy textbooks can apply for a textbook and stationery grant at
the rate of $30 per annum. The maximum number of grants a school can allo-
cate is normally 20 per cent of its approved enrolment although permission