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entering tertiary institutions, direct or otherwise: however, the recent
increase in numbers enrolling in schools and G.C.E. courses in Britain
suggested that pre-tertiary enrolment was becoming recognised as a
potentially more successful route to tertiary education than direct
entry from Hong Kong sixth forms, especially in fields such as medicine,
pharmacy and dentistry. It was considered that current trends would,
however, be affected by various overseas developments (actual or
proposed), such as the introduction of tertiary-level tuition fees for
overseas students in Australia and a very sharp increase in fees for
overseas students in Britain; a reluctance by Australia to accept overseas
secondary school students; a prohibition in several countries on employment
during overseas courses; increasing difficulty in Britain in obtaining
'home student' status; restrictions on intake numbers and the requirement
to leave the host country on completion of studies. The 1979 Working
Group noted that many of these restrictions could be (and were being)
circumvented to a degree but that the overall effect would be to increase
the pressure for admission to Hong Kong tertiary institutions.
6.9
The 1977 Working Party noted that the extent of demand for
tertiary courses was difficult to assess: most full-time courses in
all publicly-subvented tertiary institutions were oversubscribed, though
the extent of "multiple applications" was not known. The 1979 Working
Group observed that as the number of public-sector sixth-form places
continued to grow (in line with White Paper policy) the social pressure
for tertiary education could be expected to increase. Hence, even with
university places increasing at an annual rate of 3 per cent (resulting
in an increase in the proportion of the age group entering full-time
tertiary education), the number of Form VI leavers who did not obtain
full-time tertiary education of any kind would not decrease though of
this latter group not all would be qualified for tertiary education and
I