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Following is a question by Dr Hon Lam Tai-fai and a written reply by the Acting Secretary for Education, Mr Kevin Yeung, in the Legislative Council today (June 29):
Question:
To encourage more outstanding students from economies along the ¡§Belt and Road¡¨ region (B&R economies) to pursue studies in Hong Kong, the Chief Executive (CE) proposed in the 2016 Policy Address to inject $1 billion into the HKSAR Government Scholarship Fund and use the investment income thus generated to increase the number of scholarships offered to outstanding students from B&R economies to about 100 by phases (the scholarship scheme). Having regard to public views, the Government subsequently modified the scholarship scheme to make it a two-way initiative, i.e. apart from scholarships to be offered to attract outstanding students from B&R economies to pursue undergraduate studies in Hong Kong (the inbound scholarship), an Outbound B&R Scholarship (the outbound scholarship) will be provided at the same time for Hong Kong students to pursue undergraduate studies in B&R economies. Members of this Council have expressed diverse views on the scholarship scheme, including (a) while the spirit of the scholarship scheme deserves recognition, it should be taken forward on the premise that the admission of local students to funded undergraduate programmes in the territory will not be affected, (b) as Hong Kong students know nothing about the education situations in B&R economies, it is doubtful how many Hong Kong students will pursue university studies in these regions, and (c) CE's taking forward the scholarship scheme in fact aims to flatter and toady to the Central Authorities for political advantages. Besides, it has been reported that the Government intends to submit the funding proposal for the scholarship scheme to the Finance Committee (FC) before the prorogation of the current term of the Legislative Council (LegCo). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) given that it is now only about two weeks away from the prorogation of the current term of LegCo and that there are a number of funding proposals pending processing by FC, whether the Government has assessed if it is justifiable to submit the funding proposal for the controversial scholarship scheme to FC for scrutiny and whether there is urgency in doing so; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(2) whether it has assessed the likelihood of the funding proposal for the scholarship scheme getting FC's approval before the prorogation of the current term of LegCo; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(3) whether it has estimated the respective numbers of applications for inbound scholarship and outbound scholarship in each of the first five years following the implementation of the scholarship scheme; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(4) whether it will set a relative ratio of approved inbound scholarship cases to approved outbound scholarship cases; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(5) whether it will grant scholarships for the whole duration of study to awardees in one go; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that and the academic performance criteria the Government will adopt for determining whether such awardees may continue to receive scholarships in the following year;
(6) whether drop-out awardees are required to return their scholarships to the Government; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(7) whether it will modify the scholarship scheme into one which sponsors exchange students to pursue short-term (e.g. half-year or one-year) programmes, in B&R economies; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(8) whether it understands the education situations in B&R economies, including information such as the names of the universities and their programmes available for enrolment by Hong Kong students, the admission criteria adopted by various universities, designs of the disciplines, how far the qualifications are recognised, career prospects of graduates, etc; if it does, how the Government will make public such information;
(9) how it will assist students who are interested in applying for scholarships in understanding the education situations in various B&R economies; whether it will provide the relevant information on government websites; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(10) whether it has examined how far the undergraduate degrees awarded by universities in B&R economies are recognised, including whether the relevant qualifications are considered equivalent to those of the undergraduate degrees awarded by various institutions in Hong Kong; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(11) whether it will discuss with the education departments of B&R economies the implementation of partnership schemes for students to enrol in mutually designated universities and programmes; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(12) whether it will consider sponsoring Hong Kong teachers to pursue or further studies in, or take part in exchange activities at, the universities in B&R economies; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply¡G
President,
To encourage more outstanding students from economies along the ¡§Belt and Road¡¨ (B&R) region to pursue studies in Hong Kong, the Chief Executive proposed in the 2016 Policy Address to inject $1 billion into the HKSAR Government Scholarship Fund (the Fund) and use the investment income thus generated to establish the B&R Scholarship Scheme. After considering the views of various sectors of the community, the Education Bureau (EDB) has revised the details of the scheme and consulted the Legislative Council (LegCo) Panel on Education in June 2016. The scheme aims to encourage outstanding students from individual B&R economies to pursue undergraduate studies in Hong Kong and vice versa, i.e. Hong Kong students to pursue undergraduate studies in those B&R economies, so as to further strengthen the ties and educational exchange between Hong Kong and the B&R economies. In the long run, this will help establish a platform for educational, cultural and youth exchanges between Hong Kong and the B&R economies and bring benefits to students and overall development of Hong Kong.
My reply to the questions raised by Dr Hon Lam Tai-fai is as follows:
(1) and (2) As the expansion of the B&R Scholarship Scheme requires co-operation between the HKSAR Government and the governments of various economies, it is our strong wish that the injection proposal can be approved by the LegCo Finance Committee (FC) as soon as possible so that we can start discussion with the education authorities of various economies on the feasibility and details of the two-way scholarships to be provided by Hong Kong, and extend both the inbound and outbound scholarships in phases to cover other B&R economies as early as possible. Early confirmation of the scheme will also enable students who wish to pursue further studies in the B&R region to make early preparation. Nevertheless, having considered that there are still many items relating to people's livelihood to be processed by the FC, the Government decides to submit its injection proposal for establishing the B&R Scholarship to the next term of the FC for its deliberation.
(3) and (4) The number of offers to be made under the B&R Scholarship Scheme will begin with 10 to 20 per annum, and be increased to about 100 in total in phases. As regards the distribution of offers of the inbound and outbound scholarships, we will, subject to approval for the proposed injection, consult the Steering Committee of the Fund on the different arrangements of the B&R Scholarship Scheme, including the distribution of offers. Factors to be taken into account include, among others, our collaboration in the field of education with individual B&R economies; students' responses towards the two types of scholarship in respect of different economies; the operation of the Fund, particularly the actual amount of investment return to be generated from the proposed injection, etc.
The B&R Scholarship Scheme is a new endeavour. We believe that the scheme will attract more applications when our students, parents and the entire education sector have a better understanding of the scheme. An estimation of the number of applications to be received for the first five years at the present stage may not accurately reflect the actual situation. Upon implementation of the scheme, the EDB will analyse the annual application numbers and provide the findings to the Steering Committee for reference.
(5) and (6) The B&R Scholarship Scheme (including both the inbound and outbound scholarships) will adopt generally the same disbursement arrangements as the existing Targeted Scholarship Scheme of the Fund. Each awardee will receive up to $120,000 per annum to cover the actual tuition fees. The scholarship will be disbursed to the awardees by instalment per annum according to the schedule of tuition fee payment of individual institutions, and will be renewable annually subject to satisfactory academic performance of the awardees. If an awardee drops out in the middle of an academic year, the remaining portion of the scholarship he/she is entitled for in that academic year will be forfeited. As to whether the disbursed scholarship shall be recovered from students who fail to complete the entire programme, the Government will consider such cases on a case-by-case basis having regard to the different circumstances of individual students.
(7) Various schemes have been put in place under the purview of the EDB to provide support for Hong Kong students to pursue further studies and go on exchanges in various places around the world. For instance, we launched the Scheme for Subsidy on Exchange for Post-secondary Students (SSE) in January 2015 to subsidise the participation of needy local post-secondary students in experience learning and exchange activities outside Hong Kong. As at end April 2016, the scheme has benefited nearly 1 800 local post-secondary students and the amount of subsidy involved is nearly $21 million. Furthermore, in response to the views of the community that the Government should also support Hong Kong students to capture the opportunities arising from the B&R Initiative, we have recently taken the initiative to introduce a new Scheme for Subsidy on Exchange to B&R Region for Post-secondary Students (SSEBR) to encourage and support needy local post-secondary students to go on exchanges in the B&R region. The Government has earmarked $120 million in total for disbursement to participating institutions through the SSE and SSEBR in 2016-17.
(8),(9) and (11) The B&R region covers over 60 economies spanning Asia, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, with a total population of 4.4 billion. Since the B&R Scholarship Scheme aims to further strengthen the ties and educational exchanges between Hong Kong and the B&R region, the scheme will be implemented through the co-operation between the HKSAR Government and the governments of various economies. To ensure the quality of the degree programmes undertaken by the awardees, we will invite the education authorities of the collaborating B&R economies to recommend a number of quality universities in their economies for prescribing as mandatory university choices for the scholarship applicants.
Recruitment of overseas students is normally co-ordinated by the international affairs office/admission office of individual institutions. Students may visit the websites of relevant departments of the institutions to learn about the admission criteria. To prepare for the launch of the B&R Scholarship Scheme, the EDB has been gathering information on education in the relevant economies so as to get a clearer picture in this respect. Please refer to Annex for information of universities in the three countries with which Hong Kong has signed or is in discussion about signing a Memorandum of Understanding on education co-operation, including the rankings of the universities, their feature subjects/faculties, etc. Having regard to the implementation of the Outbound B&R Scholarship, the EDB will disseminate information on education of the relevant economies as well as details of their universities for the reference of students and parents in Hong Kong.
(10) As regards the recognition of educational qualifications, it is up to individual educational institutions, employers or organisations to decide whether the qualifications awarded by granting bodies outside Hong Kong (regardless of whether they are universities or other related bodies in the United Kingdom, the United States, or other B&R economies) should be recognised or accepted for admission, employment or registration purposes in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ) provides qualification assessment services to individuals holding non-local qualifications. The HKCAAVQ will offer professional opinion to the applicant on whether the totality of his/her educational qualification(s) (i.e. the integrated learning outcomes of the highest and terminal qualifications) meets the standard of a particular qualification level in Hong Kong. Taking Indonesia as an example, the HKCAAVQ had processed four applications concerning assessment of qualifications awarded by Indonesian bodies in 2015-16. The qualifications concerned were all assessed as comparable to the level of their counterparts in Hong Kong.
(12) The EDB organises "Professional Study Tours for Teachers" annually, subsidising teachers from primary and secondary schools for professional exchanges in the Mainland. We will arrange places of exchange as well as enrich the contents of the exchange tours having regard to the latest developments of the Mainland and teachers' professional development needs. For example, to complement the B&R Initiative, we plan to organise exchange tours in Mainland cities in relation to the initiative. Besides, academics and experts will be invited to conduct seminars and sharing sessions to enhance Hong Kong teachers' understanding of the development of the initiative.
Ends/Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Issued at HKT 16:10
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