The following is issued on behalf of the Committee on Self-financing Post-secondary Education:
The Chairman of the Committee on Self-financing Post-secondary Education, Professor Anthony Cheung, welcomed the various new initiatives announced in "The Chief Executive's 2023 Policy Address" today (October 25), which develop Hong Kong into an international post-secondary education hub, and support the self-financing post-secondary education sector to enhance the quality of teaching and learning, tying in with the further development of vocational and professional education and training (VPET), with a view to nurturing talent with professional skills to address community needs.
The Policy Address announced a series of initiatives, which include taking forward the development of post-secondary education in the Northern Metropolis, and launching a new round of the Land Grant Scheme (LGS) and Start-up Loan Scheme (SLS) to support self-financing institutions in upgrading premises, so as to further develop Hong Kong as an international post-secondary education hub. The initiatives also include supporting suitable self-financing institutions to develop into universities of applied sciences (UAS) by providing financial and related support, providing additional subsidies to encourage institutions to offer more applied degree programmes, as well as collaborating with the relevant Mainland authorities to take forward the mutual recognition of sub-degree level qualifications, in order to strengthen the positioning of VPET at the post-secondary level.
Professor Cheung said, "The new initiatives announced in the Policy Address will further facilitate the parallel development of the self-financing and publicly funded post-secondary education sectors, providing young people with quality, flexible and diverse opportunities for further studies. Land is an important resource for the self-financing sector. Through the Northern Metropolis development and the launch of a new round of the LGS and the SLS, we believe that self-financing institutions can develop and improve campuses in support of more quality teaching activities. We also welcome the Government's initiatives to press ahead with the development of UAS and applied degrees, which can encourage self-financing institutions to develop their distinct niche areas, leveraging the advantages of the self-financing sector in terms of its flexibility and applied focus to respond to the market's manpower needs. On the other hand, the self-financing sector is the main provider of sub-degree level education. We look forward to the Government taking forward the mutual recognition of cross-boundary sub-degree level qualifications, with a view to broadening the articulation pathways of graduates of sub-degree programmes."
The Committee will continue to maintain close communication with the Government, with a view to advising the Government on the development of the self-financing post-secondary education sector.
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