ENG-2017 — Page 179

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Education

extra recurrent grant to all public-sector and DSS schools to strengthen their IT staffing support in e-learning and taking forward education initiatives which would harness IT.

Post-secondary Education

Hong Kong has 20 local degree-awarding post-secondary education institutions, eight of which are funded by the public through the UGC, namely the City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, Lingnan University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Education University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the University of Hong Kong. The other 12 are the publicly funded HKAPA and the self-financing Caritas Institute of Higher Education, Centennial College, Chu Hai College of Higher Education, Gratia Christian College, Hang Seng Management College, HKCT Institute of Higher Education, Hong Kong Nang Yan College of Higher Education, Hong Kong Shue Yan University, the Open University of Hong Kong, Tung Wah College and the VTC's Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong. Together with providers offering locally accredited sub-degree programmes, there are about 30 post-secondary institutions.

In 2017-18, the UGC-funded universities and the HKAPA together provided around 15,200 publicly funded, first-year-first-degree intake places, while self-financing undergraduate programmes offered about 9,060 places. The UGC-funded universities and the self-financing, degree-awarding institutions also provided around 4,800 senior-year undergraduate places and 9,700 top-up degree places respectively, mainly for sub-degree graduates. At sub-degree level, about 21,000 self-financing and 11,000 publicly funded intake places were available. At postgraduate level, the UGC-funded universities and the self-financing institutions provided about 40,000 taught postgraduate and 8,000 research postgraduate places.

The government strives to provide secondary school leavers with flexible, diversified pathways with multiple entry and exit points through promoting the quality and sustainable development of the publicly funded and self-financing post-secondary education sectors. About 70 per cent of the relevant age cohort now have access to post-secondary education. Among them, 45 per cent have access to degree education, including 28 per cent enrolled in publicly funded undergraduate programmes.

Increasing Post-secondary Education Opportunities

The government promotes the sustainable development of the self-financing post-secondary sector through a basket of support measures, including providing land and premises at nominal premium and rent, interest-free start-up loans, the $3.52 billion Self-financing Post-secondary Education Fund, student finance, quality assurance subsidies and matching grants.

As at the end of 2017, about $7.3 billion of start-up loans to post-secondary institutions out of a total $9 billion commitment had been approved. Besides, about $300 million of matching grants out of a commitment of up to $500 million had been approved since the launch of the seventh Matching Grant Scheme in August.

The number of publicly funded undergraduate senior year places available at UGC-funded universities for sub-degree graduates is being increased by 1,000 between 2015-16 and 2018-

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