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The Secretary for Education, Mr Michael Suen, today (May 11) presented certificates to the first batch of scholarship awardees under the Self-financing Post-secondary Scholarship Scheme (SPSS).
A total of 1,290 outstanding students, including 1,263 local and 27 non-local students from 30 participating institutions, received about $36 million in scholarships and awards in the 2011/12 academic year.
Of the recipients, 952 studied sub-degree programmes and the remaining 338 pursued degree courses.
The SPSS was established under the Self-financing Post-secondary Education Fund in 2011 to promote the development of the self-financing post-secondary sector. Under the scheme, scholarships and awards are offered to students pursuing full-time locally accredited self-financing sub-degree or bachelor degree programmes.
The SPSS provides two types of scholarships and awards: Outstanding Performance Scholarships are for students with outstanding achievements, while the Best Progress Award is to encourage and recognise students who have made significant academic progress and improvement.
For bachelor's degree students, the Outstanding Performance Scholarships for local and non-local students are $40,000 and $80,000 each per year respectively. For sub-degree students, the scholarship is $30,000 each per year for local and non-local students. The assessment criteria include academic performance, community service, leadership and communication skills.
The Best Progress Award is set at $10,000 for bachelor's degree or sub-degree students, irrespective of whether they are local or non-local students.
In the 2011/12 academic year, 1,000 students were awarded Outstanding Performance Scholarships and 290 gained Best Progress Awards.
The list of 30 participating institutions is in the Annex.
Ends/Friday, May 11, 2012
Issued at HKT 15:48
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