XN000022-1995-02-22 — Page 56

(b)

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the ratio between hostel places and the overall number of enrolments; how does this ratio compare with those adopted by institutions under the University Grants Committee?

Reply:

Mr President,

*(a)

(b)

A total of 1,500 student hostel places are planned for the full-time students on pre-service courses at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIED) whereas none are planned for the students on in-service courses. The Government does not specify how these hostel places should be allocated amongst the students.

In planning for the provision of student hostels at the HKIEd, the Government's policy is that Government contribution will be limited to 75% of the capital cost to enable up to 50% of the full-time students to be provided with hostels. This is in line with the policy on the provision of publicly-funded hostels for students in the tertiary sector as a whole as institutions funded by the University Grants Committee (UGC) are at present required to cover at least 25% of the total cost of a hostel project. Nevertheless, because of historical and locational reasons, the levels of provision of student hostels in the UGC-funded institutions vary.

Having regard to its unique academic mission in teacher education, the Institute considers there is a need to enable students to participate more fully in student activities and hence develop their social and organisational abilities and to provide easy access to the Institute's facilities for students to carry out their practical work. In view of the location of the campus, the Institute intends to seek private donations to provide maximum student accommodation in order to better fulfill the unique objectives of teacher education.

The planned 1,500 student hostel places represent 37.5% of the projected full-time student population of the HKIEd when it moves into its new campus in September 1997. As mentioned in (a), the levels of provision of publicly-funded student hostels for the UGC-funded institutions vary, largely because of historical and locational reasons, and are as follows -

up to 25% of the full-time student population for the University of Hong Kong