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Following is a question by the Hon Frederick Fung and a written reply by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Professor Arthur K C Li, in the Legislative Council today (March 10):

Question :

Will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:

(a) the teaching departments closed and programmes discontinued by each public-funded tertiary institution in each of the past five academic years, and the respective numbers of students and staff of the teaching department/programmes concerned in the academic year preceding the closure/discontinuance; and

(b) how the tertiary institutions concerned dealt with the staff whose posts were deleted as a result of the closure/discontinuance?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) To keep up with the changing needs and circumstances of the society, institutions have to constantly examine their programmes, review their relevance to current circumstances and market demand, and make adjustments as appropriate. For instance, the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) has introduced a number of changes to their programmes and phased out their sub-degree programmes over the past years, in line with the Government's intention to upgrade HKIEd into a degree awarding institution to meet teacher training requirements. In some cases, an existing programme was discontinued, and made available in a different mode of study or on a self-financing basis.

According to the information provided by the University Grants Committee (UGC)-funded institutions, one teaching department was closed, and a number of academic programmes were discontinued, in the past five academic years (i.e. 1999/2000 to 2003/04). These changes, and the respective numbers of students and staff of the teaching department / programmes concerned in the preceding academic year, are set out at Annex.

(b) As teaching staff are usually engaged in more than one academic programmes, the discontinuation of a particular programme usually does not lead to the deletion of teaching posts. Teaching staff affected by the discontinuation of a programme / department are usually invited to teach other programmes. Only a few of them chose to retire early or leave the institutions.

Ends/Wednesday, March 10, 2004

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