ENG-2001 — Page 221

EDUCATION

Projects to enhance language standard in Chinese (including Putonghua) and English are funded by the Language Fund under the management of SCOLAR. By October, the fund had committed around $275 million for 237 projects.

Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications

The Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications was 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. Its chairman and the majority of its members are non-officials who include school heads, teachers, and representatives from the private sector. The 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 higher education 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 the then two publicly funded universities, 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 68 798 in the 2000–01 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 engendering institutions' awareness of quality in teaching and learning, the UGC launched the second round of the TLQPRS in October.

The UGC launched the second round of the Areas of Excellence scheme in January 2000. The scheme, launched in 1998, aims to identify existing areas of strength in the UGC-funded institutions and develop them into excellent groups which would be recognised internationally as of equal status to their peers elsewhere and which would justify substantial investment in state-of-the-art facilities. The second round was concluded in September, and awarded about $100 million over five years to three projects.

In order to develop Hong Kong into a regional centre for higher education and to enhance the global outlook of local students, the UGC has secured private donations to launch scholarship schemes to support outstanding students from top universities in the Mainland to pursue undergraduate studies in Hong Kong. The first such scheme started in the 1999-2000 academic year. The UGC looks forward to the continued support of the private sector for the schemes.

Research Grants Council

The Research Grants Council (RGC) advises the Government, through the UGC, on the needs of the higher education institutions for academic research and allocates

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