TNAG-1415-FCO40-1896-Public-finance-in-Hong-Kong-1985 — Page 156

the Government to go back to square one and recommended that the living expenditure needs of students should be completely reassessed in the context of present day requirements and that in reassessing the levels of assistance to students on the basis of need, the Government should also take into consideration its commitments to the other needy people in Hong Kong. Committee emphasized that assistance to students should be given only on the basis of genuine need.

The

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A student expenditure survey was subsequently conducted in 1982 covering full-time students at the Hong Kong and Chinese Universities, the Polytechnic and post-advanced level students of the Baptist College. Unfortunately the survey conducted did not go back to square one and did not examine the type of assistance, whether grant or loan, which would most appropriately meet the students' needs in the most economical manner whilst meeting the basic policy objective, and thus did not meet the Public Accounts Committee's recommendation that the Government should take into consideration its commitments to the other needy people in Hong Kong.

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The basic policy objective of the scheme, as approved in the Executive Council Memorandum of May 1969, is that assistance from public funds towards student finance should be given on the basis of need only, with the aim of ensuring that no student who is offered a place in a university should be unable to accept that place because of lack of means, and that the assistance given in each case should be adequate to meet all reasonable expenses likely to be incurred by the student taking into account his means. In setting the policy objective it was acknowledged in the Executive Council Memorandum that the extent to which it could be implemented in the short term depended upon a number of considerations the most important being the cost involved and that for this reason it might be necessary to accept a limit on the number who may qualify for assistance. The scheme replaced a former system of scholarships and bursaries which was administered by the Education Department. The scheme was originally intended to cater for the students of the two universities but was later extended to students of the two polytechnics and post-advanced level students of the Baptist College. In 1984-85, grants to a value of $32 million and interest-free loans to a value of $82 million were approved. Since the scheme started in 1969, grants totalling $166 million have been awarded and as at 31 March 1985 loans amounting to $322 million were outstanding.