**********************************************************
Following is a question by the Hon Ip Kin-yuen and a reply by the Secretary for Education, Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim, in the Legislative Council today (May 25):
Question:
Quite a number of students have recently sought my assistance, saying that some self-financing post-secondary institutions collected the first instalments of tuition fees at a too early stage and required students to pay exorbitant enrolment deposits. One of the students paid a total of more than HK$30,000 as the first instalment of tuition fees and enrolment deposit, an amount equivalent to half-year's tuition fees, when that student applied for admission to a self-financing full-time undergraduate programme. That student was later admitted to a subsidised undergraduate programme via a channel other than the Joint University Programmes Admissions System, and hence declined the offer of that self-financing degree place. However, that student was not refunded the first instalment of tuition fees and the enrolment deposit. As there were still six months to go before the programme concerned was to commence and that student had never used any facilities of the institution concerned, the student considered such practice of the institution unreasonable. On the other hand, according to the Secretary for Education's reply to a question raised by a Member of this Council on October 14, 2015, the Education Bureau (EDB), noticing that some self-financing post-secondary institutions might collect the first instalments of tuition fees at a too early stage, had already started discussing the matter with the institutions in 2015; the EDB was at that time comprehensively collecting relevant information from various self-financing post-secondary institutions, in the hope that through rounds of discussions with the institutions in the coming year, it could come up with more reasonable arrangements regarding the time for collecting the first instalments of tuition fees and the amount of the fees. Regarding the collection of the first instalments of tuition fees and enrolment deposits by self-financing post-secondary institutions, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it knows the respective total amounts of the first instalments of tuition fees and enrolment deposits collected by each self-financing post-secondary institution in each of the past five academic years, as well as the respective total amounts of the first instalments of tuition fees and enrolment deposits which were not refunded to students who had declined offers (set out in a table);
(2) as the EDB had indicated that it was discussing with self-financing post-secondary institutions issues relating to the collection of the first instalments of tuition fees at a too early stage, of the latest progress of the relevant discussions; and
(3) whether the EDB will require various self-financing post-secondary institutions to collect enrolment deposits the amounts of which are standardized and reasonable, and not to collect the first instalments of tuition fees at a too early stage (e.g. more than six months prior to the commencement of the programmes); if the EDB will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
Post-secondary institutions in Hong Kong enjoy a high degree of autonomy in academic development and administration. At present, there are some post-secondary programmes of which the places are not allocated via the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (JUPAS). Institutions offering such programmes may devise their own admission arrangements. We understand that there is a genuine need for institutions to collect enrolment deposits to ascertain the number of students for making arrangements related to academic staff, resources, supporting measures, etc. as early as possible, so as to effectively provide high quality teaching to students, and also to discourage students from unnecessarily keeping multiple places which may affect the timely allocation of places to other students. Given the generally large amount of payment involved in the first instalment of tuition fees, we consider that institutions should take into account, apart from their own operational needs, students' circumstances and needs as well in order to draw up reasonable and appropriate arrangements regarding the timeline of collecting the first instalment.
In view of the cases referred to by the Hon Wong Kwok-hing and the Hon Tang Ka-piu and others, as well as in our reply to an oral question raised by the Hon Wong Kwok-hing on October 14, 2015, we agreed to discuss with non-JUPAS post-secondary institutions for further alignment of their admission arrangements. After the Education Bureau (EDB) has discussed with the relevant institutions over the past few months, most of the institutions have agreed to implement new arrangements on the collection of enrolment deposit and first instalment of tuition fees starting from this year.
My reply to the questions raised by the Hon Ip is as follows.
(1) Based on the information provided by non-JUPAS post-secondary institutions, relevant statistics on the enrolment deposits and the first instalment of tuition fees collected from 2012/13 to 2015/16 academic years are set out at Annex A. All post-secondary institutions are non-profit-making bodies. Any enrolment deposits and first instalment payments forfeited upon applicants' relinquishment of their reserved places will generally be used by the institutions centrally for operation and development purposes, such as for enhancing the facilities and teaching quality of the institutions, as well as setting up scholarships, which will in turn benefit their students.
(2) and (3) To enhance the support for candidates of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) Examination and facilitate the processing of applications and admission in an orderly and efficient manner, non-JUPAS post-secondary institutions in general have already adopted common application and admission arrangements since 2012 under the co-ordination of the EDB. Such arrangements include the following:
(a) setting the deadline for payment of enrolment deposits at noon of the fourth working day from the date of the release of HKDSE Examination results, so as to enable institutions to announce the first round of admission results by the deadline, and allow students to make a more informed choice of programme. After the deadline, remaining places will be allocated to other applicants on the waiting lists;
(b) most of the institutions have agreed to set the enrolment deposit or registration fee at $5,000 or below; and
(c) most non-JUPAS institutions allow applicants who are subsequently admitted to a full-time undergraduate programme funded by the University Grants Committee via the JUPAS Main or Clearing Round of offer to apply for refund of enrolment deposit. Starting from 2015, this refund arrangement has been extended to students who are admitted to an undergraduate programme subsidised under the Study Subsidy Scheme for Designated Professions/Sectors via the JUPAS Main or Clearing Round of offer.
Besides, after the EDB has discussed with the relevant institutions over the past few months, most of the institutions have agreed to implement the following additional new arrangements from 2016 onwards:
(a) For current candidates of HKDSE Examination/JUPAS applicants, the deadline for settling the first instalment of tuition fees for non-JUPAS programmes (including first-year-first-degree (FYFD) and sub-degree programmes) will be no earlier than one day after the announcement of JUPAS Main Round offer. The payment deadline this year will be no earlier than August 9;
(b) For non-JUPAS applicants, while institutions offering non-JUPAS programmes (including FYFD, senior year undergraduate and sub-degree programmes) may collect from them enrolment deposit at no more than $5,000, the deadline for settling the first instalment of tuition fees should be no earlier than mid-July (i.e. July 15 for this year); and
(c) The Hospital Authority (HA) has agreed to advance the announcement of allocation results for its Higher Diploma (HD) programme in Nursing from the customary date of end-August to the date of announcement of JUPAS Main Round offer, i.e. August 8 this year, so that students will not have to forfeit a large amount of first instalment of tuition fee paid to other institutions because of the unavailability of the allocation results of HA¡¯s HD in Nursing programme until a later time.
Apart from the above arrangements, the EDB also encourages institutions to consider individual applications on a discretionary basis. To enhance transparency, a summary of the arrangements of individual institutions is set out at Annex B, which was uploaded onto the Information Portal for Accredited Post-secondary Programmes (iPASS) in late April this year for access by teachers, students, parents and the public, thereby making it easier for students to understand and compare the arrangements of institutions. With the implementation of the above arrangements, current JUPAS applicants will have at least two days (i.e. the day of announcement of JUPAS Main Round offer and the following day) to decide on the public-funded or self-financing post-secondary programmes they are going to take before they have to settle any first instalment of tuition fees. For non-JUPAS applicants, as they do not have to wait until the release of HKDSE Examination results or the announcement of allocation results under JUPAS, most of the institutions will have made offers to them in or before July each year. Hence the above arrangement which is applicable to non-JUPAS applicants has already catered for their circumstances as far as possible.
We consider that the enhanced arrangements mentioned above have struck a proper balance between students' interests and the operation of post-secondary institutions. The EDB will continue to listen to the views of various parties and liaise with the institutions.
Thank you, President.
Ends/Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Issued at HKT 20:09
NNNN
