************************************************************
Following is a question by the Hon Albert Chan Wai-yip and a written reply by the Secretary for Education, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (January 20):
Question:
Recently, some members of the public have relayed to me that as the schools/colleges of continuing and professional studies ("schools/colleges") of quite a number of universities have set up their education centres in Kowloon and on Hong Kong Island, residents in the New Territories have to incur high travelling expenses and spend a lot of time to reach such centres to attend classes, thus causing them much inconvenience. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it knows the locations of the respective education centres of the schools/colleges of the various tertiary institutions at present, as well as the courses offered there and their enrolment capacities (list out in table form);
(b) whether it knows the distribution, by District Council district, of the residences of the students of the various schools/colleges at present (list out in table form);
(c) whether it knows the reasons why the various tertiary institutions rarely set up education centres in New Territories West; and
(d) whether the authorities will consider adopting measures to encourage the various schools/colleges to set up their education centres in remote areas such as New Territories West; if they will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Chairman:
(a) The locations and student numbers of programmes offered by colleges/schools of continuing and professional education of the University Grants Committee funded institutions are listed at Annex. The institutions offer a wide variety of part-time and full-time programmes including various short-term courses as well as diploma/certificate programmes, sub-degree programmes, self-financing degree and post-graduate programmes offered by local or non-local institutions. Programme details are listed in the websites of the respective institutions.
(b) As not all institutions require students to provide information on their residential address, we are unable to provide the distribution of residence of students by District Council districts.
(c) & (d) Programmes offered by schools/colleges of continuing and professional education are self-financing in nature. When deciding programmes to be offered and class locations, institutions take into account various factors including market demands and student needs. We have no plan to introduce measures to encourage institutions to set up education centres in individual districts.
Ends/Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Issued at HKT 12:31
NNNN