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The Government announced today (July 24) the launch of a new subsidy scheme to subsidise up to 1 000 students per cohort starting from the 2015/16 academic year to pursue designated full-time locally accredited self-financing undergraduate programmes in selected disciplines to nurture talent to meet Hong Kong's social and economic needs. A dedicated webpage will also be launched.
The Study Subsidy Scheme for Designated Professions/Sectors (SSSDP) aims to achieve the following objectives:
(a) To increase the supply of subsidised undergraduate places by leveraging the supply of the self-financing sector;
(b) To nurture talent in support of specific industries with urgent or keen demand for human resources;
(c) To encourage the self-financing education sector to offer programmes in selected disciplines that meet Hong Kong's social and economic needs by providing targeted financial support; and
(d) To support the healthy and sustainable development of the self-financing post-secondary education sector to complement the University Grants Committee-funded sector in broadening and diversifying study opportunities.
The Acting Deputy Secretary for Education, Ms Pecvin Yong, said, "In consultation with relevant policy bureaus, we have identified key disciplines related to health care, the construction industry, testing and certification, the creative industry, logistics and tourism and hospitality, as these key sectors have keen and urgent demand for talent."
There are five participating post-secondary institutions providing 13 programmes and offering a total of 940 subsidised places under the SSSDP for the cohort to be admitted in the 2015/16 academic year. Details of the relevant institutions, the programmes and the number of places to be subsidised under each programme are set out in the Annex.
"Allocation of the subsidised places will mainly go through the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (JUPAS)in order to ensure eligible students are selected through a merit-based system," Ms Yong said.
The SSSDP will be administered in a two-tier arrangement in which a subsidy of up to $40,000 will be provided to programmes that are not laboratory-based while a higher subsidy of up to $70,000 will be provided to more costly programmes that are laboratory-based. The subsidy is tenable for the normal duration of the programme concerned (i.e. four to six years) and will be disbursed to the relevant institutions based on the actual enrolment of eligible students subject to the quota for the designated programme. Students admitted to SSSDP-subsidised places would pay the net tuition fee, after deducting the subsidy from the gross tuition fee.
"Students in need who are admitted to the subsidised places under the SSSDP may apply for student financial assistance in respect of the actual amount of tuition fees payable," Ms Yong added.
To facilitate access of students, parents and other members of the public to detailed information on the SSSDP, a dedicated webpage (www.cspe.edu.hk/SSSDP) was established today under the Concourse website of the Committee on Self-financing Post-secondary Education, with links to the websites of the participating institutions and JUPAS.
In the 2014 Policy Address, the Chief Executive announced a series of initiatives that aim to provide school leavers with broader and more diversified articulation pathways both in and outside Hong Kong. The new SSSDP reinforces the Government's policy to support the parallel development of the publicly funded and self-financing post-secondary education sectors and to provide quality, diversified and flexible pathways with multiple entry and multiple exit points for school leavers.
Ends/Thursday, July 24, 2014
Issued at HKT 12:47
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