7 June 1993
RESTRICTED
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
(31)
BY FAX
Hugh Davies Esq
Senior British Trade Commissioner
HONG KONG
London SWIA 2AH
Telephone: 071-
HKB 285/1
153 1997
Dear Hugh,
FUTURE OF SCHOLARSHIP SCHEMES FOR HONG KONG
1.
I am sorry to land an issue on you as soon as you arrive, but it is one which you will wish to be aware of as you start your introductory round of calls on the Taipans of Hong Kong! We seek in para 8 some preliminary views from you as soon as you feel able to let us have them.
2.
Earlier this year, the Hong Kong Government conducted a review of the UK/Hong Kong Joint Funding Scheme which subsidises the costs of Hong Kong students studying in the UK. The Scheme is a fee support programme jointly funded by HMG and the Hong Kong Government. Currently, each is making a contribution of £2.2 million with HMG's contribution coming from the FCO Scholarship budget. As a result of the review, the Executive Council decided that the Joint Funding Scheme should be phased-out by 1996/7, with the wind-down starting in 1994/5. The Council felt that, although the Scheme was highly regarded, the changing political status of Hong Kong and the expansion of their tertiary education made it difficult to allocate education funds to sending students overseas. They also felt that continuing with the Joint Funding Scheme with the UK when they have no such bilateral arrangements with other countries could prove particularly sensitive after 1997.
3.
After careful consideration we have agreed that the Scheme should be phased out. However, given the tight budgetary constraints that we ourselves are facing, we cannot agree to the Executive Council's proposal that all HMG's share of the Scheme should be redeployed to the existing (small) HMG-funded Scholarships Programme, which BTC are already involved with. HMG's contribution to the latter is matched by the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club (on behalf of the Hong Kong Government) and consists of £40,000 from FCOSAS resources with the balance coming from the two-thirds of annual and accrued
davies7.4/LETTERS/NJH
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