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Following is a question by the Hon Lau Wong-fat and a reply by the Secretary for Education, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (June 4):
Questions:
Will the Government inform this Council of the respective total amounts of private donations secured and government matching grants received by each tertiary institution since the implementation of the Matching Grant Scheme (MGS) in 2003, and when it will review the effectiveness of the Fourth MGS (i.e. the latest round of MGS)?
Reply:
President,
The Administration has launched three rounds of Matching Grant Scheme (MGS) from 2003 to 2007 and awarded grants to the eight University Grants Committee (UGC)-funded institutions to match private donations secured by them. As a result of the three MGS, the eight institutions have together secured about $7.7 billion of additional resources, comprising about $2.9 billion of government matching grants and close to $4.8 billion of private donations. A breakdown of the private donations and matching grants secured by individual institution under the three MGS is set out at Annex.
The Administration has allocated $1 billion to launch the fourth MGS which started on January 1, 2008 and will operate until February 28, 2009. Originally covering the eight UGC-funded institutions, its scope was extended to also include the Open University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Shue Yan University. Up to the end of April 2008, the ten institutions have together raised more than $1,660 million of private donations and the UGC has allocated $865 million of matching grants to them. It is expected that the balance of the matching funds will be fully allocated to the institutions by the end of the fourth MGS. As in the past three exercises, UGC will release the results of the fourth MGS upon its completion.
The UGC has reviewed the effectiveness of the MGS upon the completion of the first three rounds of the Scheme. The MGS has proven to be an effective tool in promoting a philanthropic culture in the community, and has successfully broadened the funding sources of our tertiary institutions. When compared with those years with no MGS, the level of private donations in the years with MGS has been significantly higher. At the same time, the institutions have been able to put the additional resources secured under the MGS to good use in different areas, including teaching and research enhancement, academic strength and niche areas development, student-oriented activities/development programmes and capital projects. As explained above, the fourth MGS is currently in progress. We will review the results of the fourth MGS upon its completion.
Ends/Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Issued at HKT 15:29
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