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The Education Bureau (EDB) announced today (June 1) that the Mainland University Study Subsidy Scheme (MUSSS) will, from today until August 31, 2016, be open for applications from eligible Hong Kong students. Additionally, the scheme will be expanded to subsidise financially needy Hong Kong students pursuing undergraduate studies at 155 designated Mainland institutions.
The MUSSS was launched by the Government in July 2014 to support Hong Kong students in financial need to pursue undergraduate studies in the Mainland under the Scheme for Admission of Hong Kong Students to Mainland Higher Education Institutions (Admission Scheme). Students who pass a means test will receive either a full-rate subsidy of HK$15,000 or half-rate subsidy of HK$7,500 per student per year, depending on their needs. According to the original plan, the MUSSS will benefit three cohorts of students starting from the 2014/15 academic year, and then its effectiveness will be reviewed.
A spokesman for the EDB said, "In the course of implementing the MUSSS, we have been receiving calls from parents and students requesting an expansion of the scope of the MUSSS to cover more needy Hong Kong students who are pursuing undergraduate studies in the Mainland, including those who entered undergraduate studies in Mainland institutions through channels other than the Admission Scheme and those who commenced their studies before the introduction of the MUSSS and are still pursuing undergraduate studies in the relevant institutions. According to our understanding from the Ministry of Education, about 3 000 Hong Kong students have entered the first year of undergraduate studies in the Mainland via different channels annually in recent years. While some of them were admitted under the Admission Scheme, quite a number of them were admitted via other channels.
"To better support financially needy students and ensure that no student will be deprived of post-secondary education opportunities due to a lack of means, the Government has advanced the review of the MUSSS as to how to expand its scope and introduced enhancement measures to the scheme starting from the 2016/17 academic year."
Starting from the 2016/17 academic year, the MUSSS will be expanded to benefit all needy Hong Kong students pursuing undergraduate studies at 155 designated Mainland institutions, irrespective of the channel of their admission to the institutions. Those 155 Mainland institutions include 84 institutions participating in the Admission Scheme in the 2016/17 academic year, and another 71 institutions under "Project 985" and/or "Project 211" of the Mainland authorities which have not participated in the Admission Scheme.
"In other words, the MUSSS will no longer be restricted to those Hong Kong students admitted to Mainland institutions under the Admission Scheme. Hong Kong students who receive and have completed senior secondary education in Hong Kong, including those studying local and non-local curricula, non-Chinese speaking students, those who commenced their undergraduate studies in the Mainland before the introduction of the MUSSS as well as Hong Kong sub-degree graduates articulated to top-up degree programmes by Huaqiao University under a two-year pilot scheme to be introduced in the 2016/17 academic year, will become eligible under the MUSSS as long as they pursue undergraduate studies in the 155 designated Mainland institutions in the 2016/17 academic year," the EDB spokesman added.
"It is envisaged that the MUSSS will benefit the bulk of needy Hong Kong students pursuing undergraduate studies in the Mainland."
Details of the MUSSS and the application form are available at the EDB website (www.edb.gov.hk/musss16). Eligible students may submit, on or before July 31 (for students who entered the designated Mainland institutions before the 2016/17 academic year) or August 31 (for students who will first enter the designated Mainland institutions in the 2016/17 academic year), the completed application forms and relevant supporting documents to the EDB by post. The EDB will notify individual applicants of the application result by the first quarter of 2017.
Ends/Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Issued at HKT 14:32
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