TNAG-1073-FCO40-1323-Policy-of-the-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-including-1981 — Page 313

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and for whom a place is available should be deprived of that place because

of financial need. Thus, generous fee remission scheme are available in

public-sector senior secondary and sixth forms, and maintenance grants

or interest-free loans (or both) are available to tertiary-level students

under specified conditions: this includes students in the technical

institutes, the colleges of education, the approved post-secondary colleges,

the two universities and the Polytechnic. The Secretariat of the UPGC

administers schemes for grants and loans to university and Polytechnic

full-time students. By the end of 1980, 5,008 grants and 6,486 loans

for university students and 1,551 grants and 4,120 loans for Polytechnic

students had been approved for the 1980-81 academic year. The total

financial assistance made available to individual students has been

Government

revised over the years to take account of increases in tuition fees and

costs of living. There have also been adjustments to the split between

grants and loans within the total sum of assistance to correct the

gradual drift in recent years towards higher loans and lower grants.

Further improvements to the scheme are under consideration.

financial assistance is not generally available to Hong Kong students

studying overseas though, as stated elsewhere, two loan schemes have now

been introduced to assist Hong Kong students already enrolled or intending

to enrol in recognised first-degree (or equivalent) courses in Britain

who have been affected by the sharp increases in tuition fees for overseas

students.

5.41

Needy pupils in government and aided primary schools who cannot

afford to buy textbooks can apply for a textbook and stationery grant at

the rate of $30 per annum. The maximum number of grants a school can allo-

cate is normally 20 per cent of its approved enrolment although permission