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A new website named Concourse for Self-financing Post-secondary Education (www.cspe.edu.hk) was launched today (December 23) by the Committee on Self-financing Post-secondary Education (CSPE) while the Qualifications Register (QR) website maintained by the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ) has been revamped.
The Chairman of the CSPE, Mr Tim Lui, said, "Concourse is the first online information platform set up for the whole self-financing post-secondary sector. It serves to promote public awareness of the development of the sector and to provide different aspects of information on self-financing post-secondary education. Concourse contains comprehensive information and statistics on the sector, which users will find easy to obtain from the website. This will help increase transparency and accountability to the public and promote the sustainable development of the sector.
"Through this platform, members of the public can have access to more information about the self-financing post-secondary sector, including related government policy, the regulatory framework, government support measures, quality assurance, graduates' progression pathways and information on the self-financing post-secondary education institutions, such as campus facilities, application and admission arrangements, support services, scholarships and awards as well as activities. In addition, institutions have also provided the admission scores of intakes for the 2013/14 academic year and overviews of organisational governance, which serve as a reference for students in making articulation decisions and help enhance the transparency of the sector.
"The self-financing post-secondary education sector is vibrant and dynamic. Concourse not only provides a variety of information and data, but also contains comments from stakeholders including post-secondary students, graduates and scholarship awardees, as well as the latest development and focus of the sector," said Mr Lui.
Concourse includes the planned intake figures for the 2013/14 academic year, application information and admission arrangements of institutions which are updated and uploaded onto the Information Portal for Accredited Post-secondary Programmes (iPASS) to assist students in selecting their study programmes.
In addition, an executive summary of an employers' opinion survey has also been uploaded onto Concourse. The survey was commissioned by the Education Bureau to gauge employers' opinions of the on the job performance of graduates from first degree and sub-degree programmes. According to the survey, a majority of employers were satisfied with the job performance of the graduates. The survey covered students graduated from publicly-funded and self-financing full-time locally-accredited first degree and sub-degree programmes in 2010.
Overall, the survey result was similar to that of the previous one. About 95 per cent of employers surveyed found the performance of first degree graduates average or above, including 72 per cent who indicated that they were quite satisfied or very satisfied. The result shows that employers were generally positive about the performance of local first degree graduates in the workplace. For sub-degree graduates, about 93 per cent of the surveyed employers considered their work performance average or above, including 64 per cent who were quite satisfied or very satisfied.
The survey sought to capture information on nine broad aspects of performance - language proficiency (including English language and Chinese language), work attitude, analytical and problem-solving abilities, numerical competency, information technology literary, interpersonal skills, management skills, technical skills and knowledge on current affairs and self-learning. The results show that first degree and sub-degree graduates generally performed well in the areas of Chinese language proficiency, information technology literacy and work attitude. Overall, the aspects of work attitude and interpersonal skills were considered more important by the employers.
The CSPE was established in April 2012 for the implementation of recommendations made in the Higher Education Review conducted by the University Grants Committee in 2010. The CSPE serves as a platform for discussing strategic issues of common interest to the sector, as well as formulating and promoting good practices.
Also launched today was the revamped QR website (www.hkqr.gov.hk) by HKCAAVQ, the QR authority established under the Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications Ordinance (Cap. 592).
The Executive Director of the HKCAAVQ, Professor William Lee, noted that the QR website has a cumulative hit rate of some 900 000 since its launch five years ago, and following its revamp there are significant enhancements and improvements in content, functions and organisation. It is more convenient for the public to browse and use, especially to search and save relevant information about qualifications and programmes.
The QR is a web-based database containing information on qualifications and their respective learning programmes that are quality assured and recognised under the Qualifications Framework (QF). The QR is available to the public free of charge. At present, there are about 7 900 qualifications recognised under the QF registered in the QR.
Ends/Monday, December 23, 2013
Issued at HKT 17:17
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