The Enhancement & Start-up Grant Scheme for Self-financing Post-secondary Education has opened its 2023-24 round of applications, the Education Bureau announced today (Dec. 14). Applications are invited until April 16 next year.
The scheme aims to offer financial support for eligible self-financing post-secondary education institutions to provide programmes that meet market needs but require high startup costs. It alleviates the need for institutions to fully recover the set-up costs from tuition fees, thereby relieving the financial burden on students. In addition, it supports institutions to better develop their own strengths and niche areas.
The subsidy covers full-time and locally accredited local self-financing sub-degree and undergraduate programmes, and supports both the development of new programmes and the enhancement of existing ones.
Funding for each proposal will generally be capped at $42 million. The Committee on Self-financing Post-secondary Education will advise the Secretary for Education on the comparative merits of applications.
In the 2022-23 round, two out of eight applications were approved and were awarded a total grant of about $57 million. The programmes were in the game design and engineering sectors and were both considered to cater to manpower demands in related industries.
The bureau will maintain close contact with the institutions to ensure they are making the best use of the scheme's resources and launch the relevant programmes as soon as practicable.
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