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Education

The Hong Kong Jockey Club Life-wide Learning Fund, established by the bureau and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, supports eligible, financially needy students to participate in life-wide learning activities organised or recognised by schools that foster whole-person development. It allocated $78 million to 936 schools in 2017-18, subsidising about 210,000 students.

Student Finance Office

To ensure no student is denied access to education because of a lack of means, the Student Finance Office of the Working Family and Student Financial Assistance Agency provides means- tested and non-means-tested financial assistance at various study levels. The office also administers a number of scholarship schemes.

Financial Assistance for Pre-primary Education

Eligible children may enjoy means-tested assistance, including fee remission under the Kindergarten and Child Care Centre Fee Remission Scheme and an additional grant to defray their kindergarten-related expenses. In the school year of 2017-18, subsidies totalling around $401 million were granted to about 41,700 students.

Financial Assistance for Primary and Secondary Education

At primary and secondary levels, means-tested assistance covers textbooks, travel, internet access and examination fees. In the 2017-18 school year, around $825 million was disbursed to about 203,500 students to pay for essential textbooks and miscellaneous school-related expenses, $347 million to 142,900 students as travel subsidies, $148 million to 130,400 families to subsidise internet access by students at home, and around $33 million in examination fee remission for some 15,000 students sitting public examinations. The government also disbursed school-based and district-based grants to support the whole-person development of needy students.

Financial Assistance for Post-secondary Education

Means-tested grants and low-interest loans are offered to eligible full-time students pursuing eligible courses at UGC-funded or publicly funded institutions. In the 2017-18 academic year, around $885 million of grants and $192 million of loans were provided to about 21,700 students. Eligible students pursuing full-time, locally accredited self-financing post-secondary programmes can also apply for similar assistance. In the 2017-18 academic year, around $877 million of grants and $168 million of loans were provided to around 18,000 students.

Non-means-tested loans operating on a no-gain-no-loss and full-cost-recovery basis are available to students pursuing eligible publicly funded or self-financing post-secondary programmes, and eligible professional or continuing education courses. In the 2017-18 academic year, about 31,200 students received loans amounting to around $1,557 million.

Travel subsidies totalling around $124 million were provided to about 33,600 post-secondary students.

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