Education

The Government has asked the University Grants Committee for advice on implementing a differential tuition fee system in the UGC-funded sector.

Science students are targeted for paying higher school fees under the new system, as the costs of running their departments are higher and they are expected to earn more after graduation, according to reports.

UGC members have argued that it would be unfair to have arts students subsidize the education of their more scientific schoolmates.

"The basic principle of tertiary education is equity. The chance of entering universities should not be affected by the financial abilities of the students," said Prof. Sydney Chung, dean of the Faculty of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

"Most of the funds of the universities are subsidized by the Government."

Undergraduates contribute only a small part of the total cost of running the universities.

Under current Government policy, tuition for most undergraduates in Hong Kong is about $42,000 a year. However, this is only18 percent, on average, of the total cost of supporting one student. The cost of one student was $230,000 per year at mid-1997 prices, said a spokesman for the University Grants Committee.

According to the UCG's October 1996 Review Report on Higher Education, the assistance provided by the UCG to tertiary education is eight times that for secondary education.

Prof. Chung also said that for the Faculty of Medicine of the Chinese University, the unit cost of students is approximately $700,000 a year. Raising tuition fees would not be a great help to the government. Instead, it would increase the burden of students.

Dr. Chung disagreed with the proposal of charging differential fees for undergraduates.

The University Grants Committee reported that "recurrent grants" — that is, operating funds — for the eight UGC institutions totalled $12.9 billion. "Capital grants", or funds for acquiring and building new facilities, amounted to $1.1 billion. The total amount of approved grants in the academic year 1998-1999 amounted to 27.5 percent of the total public expenditure on education.

Clearly the Government pays a hefty bill to bankroll the eight UGC institutions in Hong Kong.

Prof. Michael Loy, dean of the Faculty of Science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, opposes the fee reformation plan.

"Raising school fees for students would turn education to a money-measurement based system, which would be a negative aspect towards the whole system," he said.

"The charged system would lead to a shifting of the burden to students. Students would regard money as a determining factor for furthering their studies. It would restrain them from choosing their subjects according to their interests and sense of mission.

"In some foreign universities, students taking medical and dental courses are charged higher costs, but not owing to the cost of running the departments," added he.

Mabel Man, a student at Hong Kong Baptist University, said, "Tertiary education is a kind of social welfare. Everyone should be able to obtain it without bias.

"For that reason, fees for all undergraduates should be the same, but not determined by the subjects they are taking," she said.

She added that she thinks that the new system would be unfair to science students.

Said she: "It is the responsibility of the Government to provide adequate facilities and resources for the courses offered.

"For the arts stream, they might have more foreign professors for teaching them foreign languages and much more foreign exchange programmes when compared with the science faculties."

Said Tsang Chiu In, a humanities student at Hong Kong Baptist University: "The government should not charge different fees for different students according to different programmes, as the resources allocation should be carefully planned when offering those courses."

Chan Kin Wah, a student in the Faculty of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, said, "All the undergraduates are receiving tertiary education of the same quality.

"It is therefore fair for us to pay the same amount of fees."

Said Prof. Chung: "A differential tuition fees system may force universities to be operated in a commercial sense, which is not our wish."

Said Prof. Loy: "Having adopted the new, system, students may rank financial abilities as a higher priority for choosing their faculties. This would not be a good phenomenon."

Prof. Chan, agreeing with Prof. Loy, said, "Students would no doubt focus their attention on school fees when choosing their departments.

"Those who have not made up their minds would choose to study in the arts stream for cheaper costs."

Prof. Chung added, "With the application of grants and loans provided by the Government, students can afford the expenses of furthering their studies."

Prof. Chung noted the difficulties undergraduates face paying higher fees.

"With increasing tuition fees, the students' burden is increased and some may find it difficult to pay their expenses, especially medical students who have a 5-year course.

"For some overseas universities, students are charged higher school fees for attending lectures. However, I do not hope the universities of Hong Kong would be changed in that way," he said.

Ms Tsang said, "For high-fee courses, there will be a drop in the number of students because they cannot bear the costs.

"For departments with lower fees, students will think that they do not have much in the way of resources.

"In that sense, they might think that the training is not professional enough for their career prospects," said she.

Ms Man suggested there would be a chain reaction to the increase in school fees.

"Students would not choose to study in science departments due to the problem of high cost," she said. "There would thus be an insufficient number of professionals in some sectors and that would hinder the development of the whole society."

The Committee has asked advice from the eight government-funded universities on the proposed reform.