ENG-2006 — Page 196

Student Finance

To ensure that no student is deprived of education due to lack of means, the Student Financial Assistance Agency provides means-tested financial assistance to needy students in the form of fee remissions, grants and low-interest loans for pre- primary to tertiary education. The agency also administers non-means-tested schemes of assistance and privately funded scholarships awarded on the basis of academic merits.

Means-tested Financial Assistance

At the pre-primary education level, financial assistance covers partly or fully the fees for attending kindergartens, kindergarten-cum-child care centres or child care centres. In the 2005-06 school year, fee remission totalling $544.2 million was granted to 58 035 pupils.

Assistance for needy primary and secondary school students takes the form of grants for the purchase of textbooks, subsidies for home-school travel and remission of tuition fees for senior secondary students in public sector schools. In the 2005-06 school year, $461.3 million was provided to 339 708 students for purchasing textbooks, and $285.8 million was disbursed to 222 947 students as travel subsidies. In addition, 94 088 Secondary 4-7 students were granted tuition fees remission, while 12 905 students taking Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination or Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination had their examination fees waived at a cost of $13.6 million.

At the post-secondary and tertiary level, grants, travel subsidies and low-interest loans are made available to needy, full-time students pursuing eligible courses at UGC-funded institutions, the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education of the Vocational Training Council, the Prince Philip Dental Hospital and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. In the 2005-06 academic year, $903.4 million of grants. and $435.5 million of loans were provided to 34 035 students.

Eligible students pursuing accredited, self-financing post-secondary education programmes leading to a sub-degree qualification were provided with a grant or a loan to cover tuition fees. In the 2005-06 academic year, $206.5 million in grants and $101.2 million in loans were provided to 9 183 eligible students. The means-tested financial assistance scheme for these students was improved during the 2006-07 school year, with a projected increase in grant disbursement to about $535 million. Travel subsidies totalling $100.4 million were also provided to 39 159 students of all post-secondary institutions.

Non-means-tested Financial Assistance

Financial assistance for meeting tuition fees, academic expenses and living expenses also takes the form of non-means-tested loans, which are interest-bearing on a no-gain, no-loss basis to the Government. They are available to students pursuing eligible full-time or part-time publicly funded or self-financing local award- bearing programmes as well as professional or continuing education courses provided in Hong Kong by registered schools, non-local universities and recognised training