**********************************************

Following is a question by the Hon Michael Mak and a written reply by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Professor Arthur K C Li, in the Legislative Council today (May 12):

Question:

Regarding the expenditure of tertiary institutions on full-time and part-time courses for training medical, nursing and allied health grade personnel, as well as the employment situation of the graduates concerned, will the Government inform this Council of the following, in respect of each grade :

(a) the respective relevant total expenditures, numbers of graduates and student unit costs of various institutions in each of the past two academic years;

(b) the respective numbers of places for relevant diploma, high diploma, bachelors' degree, masters' degree and doctorate courses in each of the next five academic years;

(c) the employment situation of graduates of relevant programmes at the end of the graduation year over the past two years and, among them, the number and percentage of those who were employed in trades related to their own disciplines, and their average starting salaries; and

(d) the respective numbers of graduates of relevant programmes employed/to be employed by government departments and subvented organizations last year and each of the next five years, as well as the terms of appointment concerned?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) The annual student unit cost and the number of graduates of medicine, nursing and allied health full time first degree programmes in the University Grants Committee (UGC) sector in 2001/02 and 2002/03 academic years are set out at Annex I.

(b) The planned student intakes of the relevant programmes in 2004/05 are set out at Annex II. Since student numbers in the next triennium (i.e. 2005/06 to 2007/08 triennium) are still being planned, we do not have the figures for the 2005/06 academic year and beyond.

(c) According to the annual graduate employment surveys conducted by the UGC-funded institutions, the employment situation of full-time graduates of the relevant first degree programmes as at the end of the graduation years 2002 and 2003 is set out at Annex III.

(d) The number of staff recruited by the Department of Health (DH), the Social Welfare Department (SWD), the Hospital Authority (HA) and the Prince Philip Dental Hospital (PPDH) in 2002/03 and 2003/04 are set out at Annex IV.

The number of staff to be recruited in future years would depend primarily on service need. Since the emphasis of the health care system will be placed more on primary health care, ambulatory care, and community care programmes, greater demand for a multi-skilled health care workforce will result. This will provide greater flexibility in manpower planning of health care professionals. As far as the terms of employment are concerned, while the staff of HA and PPDH have been employed on contract terms, recruits of the two government departments (i.e. DH and SWD) in 2002/03 and 2003/04 were mostly non-civil service contract staff owing to the civil service recruitment freeze across the Administration.

Ends/Wednesday, May 12, 2004

NNNN