TNAG-0795-FCO40-999-Policy-of-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-1978 — Page 177

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1980s and early 1990s. Inevitably, this has meant leaving on one side other important topics. They include possible changes in the 1980s in the arts/science mix and in the sectoral split between universities and other higher eduion institutions; possible policy developments on postgraduate and overseas student numbers; and comparability of provision across the binary line. All these issues could have potentially profound implications for the higher education system, and the Departments will keep them under review as appropriate. But they are perhaps essentially second-order questions compared with the certainty of a sharp decline in the 18 year-old age group.

37. The Departments would welcome the views of the interests concerned (both within and outside the education service) on the various Models set out above and on the principal questions which arise from this paper as a whole:

i. are the projections of student numbers based on reasonable assumptions?

ii. could higher education institutions contract their provision as sharply

in the early 1990s as these projections imply?

iii. does it make sense for the higher education system to expand to meet

the full peak in projected student numbers?

iv. would it be wiser to aim at a lower peak provision to avoid difficulties

of subsequent contraction?

v. should the Robbins principle continue to guide the provision of higher

education?

vi. what scope is there for encouraging students to embark either on shorter

full-time courses or on part-time courses?

vii. would it be feasible and desirable to develop deferred entry to higher

education on a sufficient scale to make a major contribution to easing the problems of the 1980s?

viii. what scope is there for reducing higher education cost per student by

improved use of resources without reducing the quality of educational provision?

ix. how far could the problems of the 1980s peak be reduced by limiting

resource commitments to the short term through the use of temporary staff and accommodation?

x. during the peak years would such temporary expedients as longer terms or summer terms be acceptable to the higher education institutions?

xi. what measures might be found to extend participation on a broader social

basis so as to avert a demographically-linked decline in student numbers at the end of the 1980s?

xii. what would be the advantages and disadvantages of using resources no

longer required for young home entrants to extend educational opportunities for people in employment?

xiii. what would be the implications of any changes in the present pattern of higher education for the structure of student awards and of higher education courses and qualifications?