TNAG-0177-FCO40-213-Proposed-Polytechnic-1969 — Page 88

13.

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No decisions have of course been taken but it may be Government expenditure on the Polytechnic should be subject to roughly the same financial and administrative controls as the Universities, including perhaps the establishment of a Polytechnic Grants Committee composed of suitably qualified persons with wide experience in this field of education and perhaps with some members who are members of the University Grants Committee to ensure that duplication between facilities at the Universities and the Polytechnic are avoided. The Secretariat of the University Grants Committee might also serve as the link between the Polytechnic Board and Government and so give some degree of coherence and co-ordination in this

field.

14.

The cost of providing sufficient facilities by about 1974 to accommodate 4,000 full time students and part-time students numbering perhaps 20,000 are very difficult to assess. It seems probable however that excluding the cost of land, provision for this number of students would need an initial capital expenditure of perhaps about $38 million and that annual recurrent expenditure might well be of the order of $20 million just for a new college of the Polytechnic with 2,000 full-time students. An additional $10 million per annum might be needed for the existing Technical College.

15.

As a first step, Government has appointed a Polytechnic Planning Committee with the following terms of reference :

"In the light of Government's intention, as conveyed

to the Committee, to provide not later than 1974 facilities in institutions of higher vocational education, under the control of a Polytechnic Board, ultimately to cater for a number of students not exceeding about 4,000 full time and 20,000 part-time, to advise on and make proposals, after due consultation with Government Departments and other interested

bodies, in respect of :-

(a) the scope of the initial courses to be offered; (b) the site and schedules of accommodation for the new College of Technology;

(c)

the establishment of the Hong Kong Polytechnic

Board;

(d) legislation setting out the powers and duties

of the Board, and providing for the proper regulation of the affairs of the Polytechnic and its constituent colleges;

(e)

the financing of the Polytechnic and its

constituent colleges under the control of the Polytechnic Board;

/(£) . . . .