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The Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Lau Kong-wah, today (September 21) officiated at the first presentation ceremony of the Multi-faceted Excellence Scholarship, and commended 21 scholarship recipients with talents in non-academic fields.
To foster a culture of multi-faceted excellence, the Home Affairs Bureau (HAB) has set up the Scholarship, starting from this academic year, to support universities and tertiary institutions in admitting about 20 local undergraduate students a year who excel in sport, arts and community service on a full cost-recovery basis.
Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Lau said, "We hope that setting up the Multi-faceted Excellence Scholarship will help members of the public understand that excellence stems from a balance between academic and non-academic achievements. The most important thing is to understand yourself, find your strengths and interests, unleash your positive energy and face life with a positive and healthy attitude. If you rise to the challenges with perseverance, there will be people who can appreciate it."
He said that the Scholarship recipients are all excellent students and that the most brilliant also learn to be humble. He also urged the students to have a global perspective and to take every opportunity to broaden their horizons.
The establishment of the Scholarship was announced in the 2014 Policy Address to serve as a new channel that allows students to be admitted to universities for their achievements outside the academic field.
Scholarship recipients are chosen through nomination, selection and matching processes. Each secondary school principal is only allowed to nominate from his or her school one Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) student with outstanding achievements in sport, arts and/or community service. After preliminary selection, the shortlisted candidates are invited to attend interviews with an assessment panel comprising individuals from various social sectors, with a view to recommending around 20 candidates for university and tertiary institutions.
To give due regard to universities' autonomy in admission, they may conduct further interviews with the nominees, if deemed necessary, to assess whether they have the aptitude for the chosen programme. The universities will give conditional offers to the nominees that they intend to admit before the release of HKDSE examination results. Nominees whose HKDSE results meet the admission conditions and who pass further interviews arranged by the universities (if any) will secure the scholarship offer. These scholarship places will be extra undergraduate places in addition to those currently funded by the University Grants Committee.
This year's Multi-faceted Excellence Scholarship recipients are listed in the Annex. For details of the Scholarship, please visit the website www.hab.gov.hk/en/policy_responsibilities/Social_Harmony_and_Civic_Education/mes.htm.
Ends/Monday, September 21, 2015
Issued at HKT 18:08
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