XN000022-1996-03-13 — Page 47

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Differences in unit costs for courses explained

Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Bing-leung and a written reply by the acting Secretary for Education and manpower, Miss Jacqueline Willis, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question:

Recently, the Government has proposed that fees for degree courses be pegged to the average student unit cost of tertiary institutions so as to achieve the target of recovering 18% of the recurrent cost by 1997-98, and that fees for sub-degree courses should be set at a level of 75% of the fees for degree courses. In this connection, will the Government inform this council: -

Reply:

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(a)

of the differences in the unit costs for the same type of courses offered by various tertiary institutions presently funded by the University Grants Committee; and whether it will consider adopting specific measures to narrow the gap if there are significant differences in such costs;

of the differences in the unit costs for different subjects (such as arts, science, engineering, medicine, social sciences, law etc.); and whether it will consider adopting specific measures so as to ensure that the fees charged will reflect the different unit costs for different courses;

whether the average unit cost for sub-degree courses offered by various tertiary institutions is equivalent to 75% of the average unit cost for degree courses; if not, whether it will review its policy for subsidising sub-degree courses and

whether it has any information showing how the average unit cost of an undergraduate place and the rate of cost recovery through tuition fees in the territory compare with the corresponding figures in the countries in Europe, America and Asia?

The average unit cost per full-time equivalent (fte) student in the University Grants Committee (UGC)-funded institutions for the academic year 1994-95 is given by institutions in the table attached at Annex A. The differences in unit cost for comparable academic programme categories may be negligible or large between institutions for a variety of reasons such as -