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To ensure that no students are deprived of education for lack of financial
means, the Student Financial Assistance Agency (SFAA) provides financial
assistance to needy students. Subject to a means test, the assistance
available takes various forms such as fee remissions, grants and/or low-interest
loans for pre-primary to tertiary education. The agency also administers
non-means tested schemes of assistance and privately funded scholarships
awarded on the basis of academic merit.
Kindergarten pupils receive assistance in paying tuition fees up to the
weighted average of the fees charged by non-profit-making kindergartens
or the actual fee, whichever is the less. In the 2002-03 school year,
62 609 pupils were granted fee remission totalling $512.1
million.
Assistance for needy primary and secondary school
students takes the form of grants for the purchase of textbooks, subsidies
for home-school travel and remission of tuition fees for those studying
at Secondary 4 to 7 in public sector schools. In the 2002-03 school year,
$505.2 million was provided to 386 019 students to purchase
essential textbooks. A further $336.6 million was disbursed for travel
subsidies to 208 313 students. In addition, 97 115 Secondary 4 to 7 students had their tuition fees waived, either
fully or by one half. For students taking the Hong Kong Certificate of
Education Examination and the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination, 12
277 had their examination fees paid on their behalf at a cost of
$12.7 million.
At the post-secondary and tertiary level, grants,
low-interest loans and travel subsidies are made available to needy, full-time
students pursuing eligible courses at UGC-funded institutions, the Hong
Kong Institute of Vocational Education of the VTC, the Prince Philip Dental
Hospital and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. In the 2002-03
academic year, $880.1 million in grants and $525.1 million in loans were
provided to 35 694 students of these institutions. For eligible
persons pursuing accredited, self-financing post-secondary education programmes
leading to a sub-degree qualification, the means-tested assistance is
in the form of a grant or a loan to cover tuition fees. In the 2002-03
academic year, $51.4 million in grants and $50.9 million in loans were
provided to 3 547 such students. In addition, 441 full-time
students of the Hong Kong Shue Yan College were provided $3.1 million
in grants and $7.1 million in loans. Travel subsidies totalling $102.2
million were also provided to 35 768 students of the above
institutions.
Financial assistance for meeting tuition fee payments and living expenses,
as appropriate, may also take the form of non-means tested loans. These
loans are interest-bearing on the basis of no-gain no-loss to the Government.
Access to these loans is open to any person pursuing eligible full-time
or part-time publicly funded or self-financing local award-bearing programmes
as well as professional or continuing education courses provided in Hong
Kong by registered schools, non-local universities and recognised training
bodies. In the 2002-03 academic year, 23 372 persons obtained
non-means tested loans amounting to $800.2 million.
The SFAA administers many privately funded scholarships and assistance
schemes for school students. Scholarships are mainly merit-based and are
provided for both local studies and studies at overseas institutions.
The Government provides a 30 per cent reimbursement of tuition fees to
PYJ students who have successfully completed a module. Starting from the
2002-03 school year, needy students who pass a means test will be eligible
for reimbursement of the tuition fees paid for each module that has been
completed satisfactorily.
A $5 billion Continuing Education Fund was launched in June 2002 to subsidise
adults with learning aspirations to pursue continuing education and training
courses in specified sectors. Eligible applicants are reimbursed 80 per
cent of their fees, up to $10,000, on successful completion
of a reimbursable course or module forming part of the course. With effect
from September 2003, the eligibility of the fund has been relaxed to include
degree holders. Over 70 000 applications had been received
by the end of 2003. |
