BY FAX
* January
Martin Dinham Esq
Government House
Hong Kong
SCHOLARSHIPS: FCO CONTRIBUTION
Thank you for your letter of 23 December about the Joint Funding Scheme and Hong Kong's contribution.
We as a department are keen to see the Joint Funding Scheme continued for as long as possible. Whilst it is of course hard to predict funding, we would argue very strongly for its continuation if Hong Kong thought it feasible to maintain the scheme. However we realise the difficulties in attempting to continue the scheme after 1997. Thus we agree with your suggestion of phasing out the scheme from 94/95, with the idea that by 1997 all students would have completed their studies. We can guarantee funding to the extent that funding can ever be guarantied, as you know from your own ODA experience.
However, as we are keen to maintain academic links with Hong Kong and even more so after 1997, we would be looking to set something up in lieu of the Joint Funding Scheme. Our Cultural Relations Department believe that we would not be able to redeploy all of our Joint Funding Scheme contribution to Hong Kong projects once the scheme is withdrawn. With reduced funds we would need to find a programme which would maximise our effectiveness. We could look into developing
institute to institute links or a bursaries scheme. Alternatively we could explore setting up an FCOSAS scheme, such as in other countries, where potential high-flyers (politically/commercially) are selected for scholarships to come to the UK. The present UK/HK Merit Scholarship Scheme is similar to this and has nine scholarships annually.
The discussions on funding for the year 93/94 have now been completed so we have a period of respite in order to consider our plans for the future. I look forward to hearing what you think of these suggestions in due course.
PF Ricketts
Hong Kong Department
SKTANG/dinhamjan
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.