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Education

Information Technology in Education

Under the Fourth Strategy on information Technology in Education, basically all public-sector and DSS schools are now equipped with enhanced Wi-Fi infrastructure to facilitate the use of mobile computer devices for e-learning in schools and the implementation of the school-based Bring Your Own Device policy. The bureau supports the schools to implement e-learning by providing professional development programmes for teachers, on-site support under the IT in Education Centre of Excellence Scheme, online resources and recurrent funding.

Post-secondary Education

Hong Kong has 22 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, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and University of Hong Kong. The other 14 are the publicly funded HKAPA, the self-financing Open University of Hong Kong, the VTC's Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong, and 11 approved post-secondary colleges registered under the Post Secondary Colleges Ordinance, namely the Caritas Institute of Higher Education, Centennial College, Chu Hai College of Higher Education, Gratia Christian College, HKCT Institute of Higher Education, Hong Kong Nang Yan College of Higher Education, Hong Kong Shue Yan University, Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, UOW College Hong Kong, Tung Wah College and Yew Chung College of Early Childhood Education. Together with providers of locally accredited sub-degree programmes, there are about 30 post-secondary institutions.

In terms of full-time studies in the 2019-20 academic year, 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 9,900 places. The UGC-funded universities and the self-financing, degree-awarding institutions also provided around 5,000 senior-year undergraduate intake places and 9,400 top-up degree places respectively, mainly for sub-degree graduates. At sub-degree level, about 19,700 self-financing and 13,300 publicly funded intake places were available.

At postgraduate level, about 2,600 and 5,600 UGC-funded taught and research places were available in 2019-20 respectively. As regards self-financing places, taught and research programmes registered actual enrolments of 41,200 and 3,900 respectively in 2018-19.

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. In 2018-19, about 80 per cent of the relevant age cohort had access to post-secondary education. Among them, about half had access to degree education, including 31 per cent enrolled in publicly funded undergraduate programmes.

The government has taken follow-up actions after accepting in full the recommendations of the Task Force on Review of Research Policy and Funding. The new initiatives include increasing research funding substantially through a $20 billion injection into the Research Endowment

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