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1
(c)
(d)
Before 1974-75, differential fees were charged at the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong and between faculties. A single uniform fee for degree courses at HKU and CUHK was introduced in 1974-75 to avoid the negative effect of higher fees on the supply of manpower in some of the higher-cost specialities. It was also felt that differential fees for comparable courses at different institutions might perpetuate a pecking order among higher education institutions in Hong Kong.
This principle of uniform fees was re-affirmed in the reviews of tuition fee policy in 1986 and 1991. When consulted in 1991, both the University and Polytechnic Grants Committee (UPGC) and the heads of institutions were opposed to charging differential fees as being impractical and socially unacceptable.
In response to recent interests in the re-introduction of differential fees, the Government has invited the UGC to tender advice on the feasibility and desirability of charging differential fees for different courses, and will further consider this issue in the light of the UGC's advice.
Under the existing accounting/reporting system, unit costs are calculated with reference to academic programme categories by broad disciplines, without differentiation by sub-degree, degree or taught postgraduate levels. Notionally, however, average unit costs for sub-degree programmes are about 75% of those of the degree programmes in the same academic programme category.
The Administration has not located any published comparative statistics on the costs of undergraduate education specifically. However, some information is available from the Organisation for Economic Co- operation and Development based on the United States Department of Education statistics published in 1995 on the public expenditure per student by level of study for selected countries from 1985 to 1992. A table, incorporating similar statistics compiled by the Administration, is at Annex B. The comparison gives the public education expenditure per student in the higher education sectors of selected countries in Europe, America and Asia, and includes recurrent and capital expenditure on students studying at sub-degree, degree and postgraduate levels. Direct comparisons are difficult to make in view of the very different economic and social systems and the different mix of sub-degree, degree and postgraduate provision.