EDUCATION
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direction of development, particular attention is being paid to subject areas with priority needs, as well as to the demand from sixth-form school leavers which is expected to increase as the results of the expansion of secondary education begin to be felt.
In determining policies in higher education, the government takes advice from the UPGC, which also provides specific expert and impartial advice on grants to individual institutions. The UPGC also enables the institutions to maintain their autonomy, an increasingly important factor as various government departments identify manpower requirements for social programmes, leading to requests for additional graduates in, for example, medicine, education and social work.
A further pressure on the local institutions is the increasing difficulty which Hong Kong students find in pursuing their studies overseas. The government has introduced a scheme whereby means-tested loans are made to Hong Kong students on degree and higher national diploma courses in the United Kingdom. These loans are designed to assist towards the difference between home and overseas fees. In 1982-3, loans totalling $18.9 million were made to 922 students, compared with $21.3 million to 1 073 students in 1981-2.
Against this background, a series of important decisions was made in 1982 affecting the future of higher education in Hong Kong. First, new student targets should be set for the universities taking account of specific requirements identified by the government in addition to internally generated growth. The intention is that by 1987-8 there should be a university student population of 15 100 (11 620 in 1983-4), providing 3 500 first year undergraduate places (2 600 in 1983-4). Of the total, 7 100 would be at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and 8 000 at the University of Hong Kong, which has also been invited to prepare plans to increase its student population to some 10 000 by the mid-1990s. Second, the Hong Kong Polytechnic should increase its student numbers from a full-time equivalent of around 12 000 in 1983-4 to 13 500 by 1987–8. Third, a new polytechnic should be built, initially with a full-time equivalent student population of 8 000, but with the capacity to expand to 13 500 should the need for technician and higher technician courses. be established. This new polytechnic, on a 12.2 hectare site in Kowloon Tong West, will be governed by its own council but will benefit from help to be provided by the Hong Kong Polytechnic. It is envisaged that the first students will enrol before 1987. Fourth, the Hong Kong Baptist College is to be included in the terms of reference of the UPGC, which expects to be able to make grant recommendations in 1983 for the 1983-4 academic year. These proposals will mean that by 1990 there should be first year degree places for about six per cent of the 17 to 20 age group, rising to eight per cent in the mid 1990s, comparing favourably with the present provision of two to three per cent, and not unfavourably with higher education in developed countries. At the same time the non-university institutions will be contributing significantly to the improved opportunities for Form 5 and 6 school leavers to pursue non-degree courses. In this area, the opportunities are expected to double over the same period.
Existing schemes will continue whereby students attending full-time higher level courses in Hong Kong receive grant and loan assistance towards fees and living expenses, the policy being to ensure that no student is prevented from accepting a full-time place because of lack of means. This scheme applies to students at the two universities and the polytechnic and, from 1982-3, full-time students taking post A-level diploma courses at the Hong Kong Baptist College also became eligible. In the 1982-3 academic year, 9 859 students received assistance totalling $83.2 million, of which $20.6 million was in grants and $62.6 million in loans.