110.
The results of a study I have recently made
indicated that, despite the considerable expenditure and resources spent on the scheme, there has been a failure of management to carry out periodic reviews to see if the policy objective of the scheme is being achieved as economically as possible.
111.
To achieve the policy objective of the scheme, the 1969 Executive Council Memorandum mentioned a number of options. These included assistance entirely by grants, a combination of grants and interest-free loans, and interest-free loans only. The last option was naturally the most economical. In an address to the Legislative Council in February 1969 the Governor expressed a personal view that given the already substantial subsidies to the universities and the fact that a university education would enable a student to increase his earning power for the rest of his life, assistance to students to meet the unsubsidized part of their tuition and other expenses should take the form of loans, with grants reserved for special cases. The 1969 Executive Council Memorandum described this option as attractive noting that it had been adopted with some success in other countries. However, it was not recommended because, as stated in the Executive Council Memorandum, it would result in a young person entering his career on graduation with a consi- derable financial burden and this could cause serious problems, especially for a young woman envisaging marriage. Consequently, a combination of grants and loans was proposed. It was further stated that it would be reasonable to relate grants to expenditure on fees, books, stationery and equipment, and interest-free loans to living and other personal expenses.
112.
Because the reason put forth for not selecting the most economical option was the serious problems it would cause the students, especially for a young woman envisaging marriage, I conducted an examination into the relevant records to see what serious problems were identified. I had expected that such a conclusion would have been the result of a thorough study or survey into the students' repayment problems, and that the findings would have been properly evaluated and documented. However, after a scrutiny of the relevant files I was unable to trace any such study. As far as I could ascertain, the assumption that serious problems could be caused was derived from certain arguments expressed in the United Kingdom around that time in opposition to a proposal to replace the United Kingdom's grant scheme by a loan scheme. The arguments centred on the United Kingdom students' lack of ability to repay that a graduate on leaving university would generally earn no more than the average semi-skilled worker, and that a large number of women graduates would leave employment after having a family, thus bringing a negative dowry to their husbands.
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