136. Our efforts to establish Hong Kong as a regional education hub have started to bear fruit. In recent years, our tertiary institutions have been recognised as leading institutions in various international rankings, and our business administration programmes are among the best in the world. In the 2010/11 academic year, 18 000 non-local students from more than 70 countries or regions came to Hong Kong for post-secondary studies. Relaxing the restrictions on non-local students to stay in or return to Hong Kong will help attract more non-local students to come here to study. Since the implementation of this initiative in May 2008, more than 15 000 applications have been approved. To further promote the internationalisation of our higher education, the Education Bureau will explore long-term goals and strategies in this respect and implement relevant measures to foster collaboration among institutions.
137. We shall continue to facilitate the development of the international school sector to provide school places to meet the demand from families coming to Hong Kong for work or investment. 5 000 additional international school places are expected to be available in the next few years with four international schools on greenfield sites coming on stream. We will continue to support in-situ expansion of individual international schools or allocate suitable vacant school premises to them for short-term use. We will carry on monitoring closely the provision of school places in the international school sector and maintaining dialogue with the schools as appropriate.
138. On diversification, the number of self-financing degree-awarding tertiary institutions in Hong Kong has increased to six, providing a total of over 13 000 places. We launched two sites in 2010, and another two in 2011, for the development of self-financing degree programmes. We shall consider launching more sites as appropriate having regard to the development of the sector. |
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