ENG-2011 — Page 185

Education | 145

By 2015, it is estimated that over one-third of young people in the relevant age cohort in Hong Kong will have access to degree-level education. Including sub- degree education, and over two-thirds of them will have access to post-secondary education.

Enhancing Internationalisation of Education

Education services, being one of Hong Kong's six priority industries, have shown good potential for further development. The Government aims to enhance Hong Kong's position as a regional education hub, nurturing talents to support the growth of the economy and increasing Hong Kong's competitiveness. To achieve this, efforts will continue to be made on internationalising and diversifying the higher education.

sector.

On the internationalisation front, a number of measures were taken in 2008. The measures include doubling the non-local student quotas of the publicly-funded programmes to 20 per cent; establishing the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government Scholarship Fund to provide scholarships to outstanding local and non-local students; allowing non-local students to take on summer jobs and on-campus part-time jobs; and enabling non-local students to stay in Hong Kong without limitations for 12 months after graduation.

Following implementation of the above measures, the number of non-local students studying in Hong Kong has increased substantially, with about 18 000 non-local students enrolling in University Grants Committee (UGC)-funded programmes and locally-accredited self-financing post-secondary programmes in the 2010-11 school year.

The Government believes that by attracting these students, Hong Kong will enlarge its talent pool and improve the quality of its population, and in turn support various sectors of the economy and increase the city's economic competitiveness. The Government has been working together with higher education institutions to step up exchange and promotion efforts overseas to encourage more students to choose Hong Kong as a preferred place for education.

Following the allocation of four greenfield sites and four vacant school premises, the provision of international school places will be increased to meet the needs of the business community. Coupled with other facilitating measures, more than 5 000 new international school places are expected to come on stream in the coming few years.

Support for Schools in Enhancing the Language Learning Environment

The fine-tuned medium of instruction (MOI) arrangements put in place from Secondary 1 in the 2010-11 school year increase students' opportunities to be exposed to, and to use, English in schools. Under the fine-tuned framework, schools can make professional judgements on their school-based MOI arrangements to meet students' learning needs, taking into consideration the ability of students, the readiness of teachers and schools' support measures.