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EDUCATION

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teachers, parents and employers, academics, representatives from the Hong Kong Examinations Authority and the Vocational Training Council. At the end of the year, the CDC was conducting a public consultation exercise on a proposed curriculum framework which was being developed to meet education requirements in the 21st century (see Curriculum above).

Standing Committee on Language Education and Research

The Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) was set up in 1996 to advise the Government on language education issues in general and, in particular, to set goals for language learning at different levels of education and to identify research and development projects which are necessary for the enhancement of language proficiency and language in education.

Projects to enhance language standard in Chinese (including Putonghua) and English are funded by the Language Fund under the management of SCOLAR. By September 30, the fund had committed around $275 million for 236 projects.

Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications

The Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications (ACTEQ) is a non-statutory body set up in 1993, upon the recommendation of the Education Commission Report No. 5, to provide a single source of authoritative advice on teacher education and on qualifications acceptable for teaching purposes in Hong Kong. Of its 22 members, 13 (including the chairman) are appointed non-officials. They include school heads, teachers, and representatives from the private sector. The nine ex officio members include representatives of all the local teacher training institutes, the Executive Director of the Hong Kong Council for Academic Accreditation, and government officials.

University Grants Committee

The University Grants Committee (UGC) is appointed by the Chief Executive to advise on the development and funding of higher education and administer public grants to eight publicly funded tertiary institutions. It comprises non-local academics, local academics and local professionals and businessmen. Civil servants staff its secretariat.

When the UGC was established in 1965 to administer grants to two publicly funded tertiary institutions, there were only 4 000 full-time equivalent students. After decades of development in higher education, eight institutions are now under the UGC's aegis and the number of full-time equivalent students increased to 69 949 in the 1999-2000 academic year (see Higher Education above).

The UGC plays a major role in monitoring quality assurance in its institutions. Considering the positive impact of the first round of the Teaching and Learning Quality Process Reviews (TLQPRs) in further engendering institutions' awareness of quality in teaching and learning, the UGC has decided to launch the second round of the TLQPRs.

To assess the research output performance of the UGC-funded institutions, the UGC conducted the third Research Assessment Exercise in 1999. More than 18 000 research output items were submitted by the institutions for assessment in the exercise. The findings were factored into the process for allocating some of the research portion of the institutional recurrent grant for the 2001-04 triennium.