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Following is a question by the Hon Regina Ip and a written reply by the Secretary for Education, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (March 17):
Question:
The Government proposed in 2007 to develop Hong Kong into a regional education hub and sought to attract more quality non-local students to study in Hong Kong. Moreover, the University Grants Committee ("UGC") will earmark, from the 800 additional research postgraduate places to be provided to its funded institutions in phases from the 2009-2010 academic year onwards, about 400 for launching the "Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme" administered by the Research Grants Council ("RGC"), so as to attract quality students from around the world to pursue their PhD programmes in Hong Kong's institutions. According to UGC's information, RGC received about 3,000 applications by the deadline for application. Regarding the level of internationalisation of Hong Kong's tertiary education, will the Government provide the following data in table form:
(a) a breakdown of the number of students who had applied for the above scheme by subject of study, as well as the number of applicants from developed countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia, etc; and
(b) the respective numbers of PhD students and undergraduates currently studying in Hong Kong, together with respective breakdowns of these two types of students by whether or not they are local students, their nationality and subject of study?
Reply:
President,
(a) The Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme received a total of 2,996 applications. A breakdown by subject of study is at Annex A.
The Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme received applications worldwide from 100 countries/economies. Amongst the applications received, 189 are from developed countries/economies, accounting for roughly 6.3% of the total number of applications. Detailed figures are at Annex B.
(b) The statistics on local and non-local students enrolled in UGC-funded PhD programmes by place of origin and broad academic programme category are at Annex C.
The statistics on local and non-local students enrolled in UGC-funded undergraduate programmes by place of origin and broad academic programme category are provided at Annex D.
Ends/Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Issued at HKT 16:40
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