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Education
In addition, two new scholarships and awards for both students studying publicly-funded and self-financing post-secondary programmes, the Talent Development Scholarship (TDS) and Reaching Out Award (ROA), were established in 2012 to recognise not only outstanding academic performance, but also achievements and talents in other non-academic fields such as sports and arts. The TDS and ROA are expected to benefit about 4,000 students in the first year, gradually increasing to 10,000 in the long run.
The EDB nominates and sponsors outstanding primary and secondary school students to take part in various national and international competitions. The study tours alongside these. competitions help broaden the students' horizons by providing them with valuable learning experiences, including the opportunities for exchanging and sharing information and ideas with their peers from other parts of the world.
Key Achievements in 2012
Enhancing Transparency of Qualifications
To enable learners to make informed choices about learning programmes and better facilitate recruitment and training by employers, the Government announced in October 2012 the introduction of the Award Titles Scheme (ATS) and Use of Credit under the Qualifications Framework (QF). The ATS will simplify and standardise titles to reflect more clearly the level of qualifications. The adoption of QF credits will provide clear and transparent information on the size or volume of learning and the efforts and outcome expected from learners to complete the programmes.
Developing Publicly-funded and Self-financing Post-secondary Education
The Government promotes the development of both the publicly-funded and self-financing sectors to provide young people with a wide range of study options.
To meet the future development needs of Hong Kong, the Government continues to invest heavily in the publicly-funded sector. Starting from the 2012-13 academic year, the number of first-year-first-degree (FYFD) places has increased to 15,000 per annum, and the number of senior year places will be doubled, to 4,000 intake places by 2014-15. The number of undergraduates in publicly-funded institutions will rise by about 40 per cent by 2016, and by 2014-15 the annual recurrent grants for the eight publicly-funded institutions will increase by about $3 billion (or 27 per cent) to $14.3 billion.
The Government actively supports the sustainable development of the self-financing post- secondary sector through a basket of measures, including providing land at a nominal premium, interest-free start-up loans, student finance, quality assurance subsidies and a $3.5 billion Self-financing Post-secondary Education Fund to provide scholarships and support quality enhancement efforts of institutions.
In February, the Government launched the Electronic Advance Application System for Post- secondary Programmes which enables students to lodge advance applications via the internet for full-time locally-accredited post-secondary programmes not covered by the Joint University Programmes Admissions System.
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