The LegCo Reporter 2005-2006		Issue No. 18 (11 May 2006)
At its meeting on 10 May 2006, the Legislative Council passed the following bill: Chief Executive Election and Legislative Council Election (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2006, with amendments proposed by the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs at Committee Stage. At the same meeting, the Council passed the following motion with no legislative effect: Motion on "Strengthening the development of post-secondary education and upgrading the quality of sub-degree courses", moved by Hon CHEUNG Man-kwong "That, although the Government has announced that it has exceeded the policy objective of providing tertiary education for 60% of senior secondary school leavers, a series of problems have arisen as a result of the substantial increase in the number of self-financing sub-degree places over the past five years, this Council considers that the Government should, apart from meeting the quantitative objective, also strengthen the development of post-secondary education and upgrade the quality of post-secondary courses; in this connection, this Council urges the Government to allocate more resources and adopt measures to address such problems as the varied quality of sub-degree courses, inequality under various student financial assistance schemes, and difficulties encountered by students in pursuing further studies and securing employment; such measures should include: (a) setting up a quality assurance mechanism to ensure the quality of sub-degree courses and recognition of the qualifications conferred; (b) facing up to the situation of over-supply of sub-degree places, and preventing vicious competition among institutions; (c) combining the Local Student Finance Scheme and the Financial Assistance Scheme for Post-secondary Students, so that all full-time students are treated equally and provided with the same level of assistance according to their financial needs; (d) providing appropriate facilities and student development services to post-secondary students, having regard to their education needs within and outside schools; as well as providing institutions with an option to extend their loan repayment period, so as to relieve their financial pressure and enable them to utilize most of the tuition received for teaching purpose; and (e) gradually increasing the number of degree places in keeping with the needs arising from social development and the academic structure reform, so as to allow outstanding graduates of sub-degree courses to pursue subsidized degree courses, thereby eliminating the bottleneck in pursuing further studies."