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The following is issued on behalf of the University Grants Committee :
The University Grants Committee (UGC) today (March 17) announced the overall results of the Fourth Matching Grant Scheme which ran from January 1, 2008 to February 28, 2009. The eight UGC-funded institutions, together with Hong Kong Shue Yan University and the Open University of Hong Kong, have secured more than $2.1 billion in donations under this fourth round, and the $1 billion matching grant was fully allocated. The final results are set out at the Annex.
The Chairman of UGC, Mrs Laura Cha, said, "It is encouraging to see that the community has responded to the Matching Grant Scheme with generous support in both good times and bad. The UGC would like to thank the Government for the scheme, and congratulate all participating institutions on their success."
With an allocation of $1 billion by the Government, a Matching Grant Scheme was first launched in July 2003 to award matching grants to UGC-funded institutions, which succeeded in securing donations for activities within the ambit of UGC recurrent grants. The eight UGC-funded institutions altogether secured more than $1.3 billion in donations together with the $1 billion in matching funds.
In view of the encouraging response to the First Matching Grant Scheme, the Government provided a further $1 billion in 2005 and another $1 billion in 2006 for introducing the Second Matching Grant Scheme and Third Matching Grant Scheme, when close to $1.9 billion and $1.6 billion respectively in private donations were raised.
To strengthen the higher education institutions' fund-raising capabilities and to encourage the growth of a philanthropic culture in the community, the Government allocated $1 billion for launching the Fourth Matching Grant Scheme in January 2008. Apart from the eight UGC-funded institutions, the scheme also covered, for the first time, Hong Kong Shue Yan University and the Open University of Hong Kong.
The matching grant was disbursed on a dollar-for-dollar matching basis up to the "floor" amount of $45 million, beyond which $1 was granted for every $2 donation, up to a ceiling of $250 million of grant on a first-come-first-served basis. The "floor" amount had been set aside for matching by each institution, as a guaranteed minimum in the first 12 months after the scheme was open for application. By the end of the 12-month period, funding under the guaranteed minimum which was not matched by the concerned institutions had been opened up for application by all institutions- also based on the first-come-first-served principle. The $1 billion matching grant was fully allocated by the end of 2008.
"Over the past four rounds of the Matching Grant Scheme, institutions have raised about $6.9 billion in private donations and $3.9 billion of matching grants has been allocated. This really is an outstanding achievement. The UGC would like to thank all the people who have made donations to the institutions," Mrs Cha said.
Ends/Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Issued at HKT 16:00
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