[Archive] Various universities' early admission schemes for top Secondary Six students

Asked by : Hon YEUNG Yiu-chung

Replied by : SEM

Question :

Recently, several University Grants Committee-funded universities have successively launched various early admission schemes for Secondary Six ("S6") students who have obtained outstanding results in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination for first degree course studies in the coming academic year. In this regard, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:

1. the respective admission requirements and procedures stipulated by the universities for these schemes and, in respect of the coming academic year, the target number of top S6 students planned to be admitted, the respective numbers of applications received and students admitted so far by each university;
   
   
2. if the authorities concerned have received complaints about such schemes; if so, of the details; and
   
   
3. the measures the authorities concerned will take to prevent such schemes from affecting the operation of the Joint University Programmes Admissions System?
   

Reply:

Madam President,

1. The recruitment and admission of students are within the autonomy of universities. Regardless of whether the institutions are admitting secondary seven graduates or outstanding secondary six students, they are free to determine the admission criteria and procedures. They may also stipulate additional conditions to meet the special requirements of individual faculties or disciplines.
   
   A total of seven University Grants Committee (UGC)-funded institutions have implemented admission schemes to recruit outstanding secondary six students this year. Although the admission requirements and procedures are not the same among the institutions, applicants are generally required to have outstanding academic performance. The institutions will normally select applicants for interviews on the basis of their results in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination. In addition, their performance in non-academic aspects such as sports, music, leadership and social services will be taken into account.
   
   As at mid-June 2002, the target number of students to be admitted, the number of applicants and the number of students accepting admission offers made by individual institutions in the 2002/03 academic year under these schemes are set out at Annex.
   
   
2. The Government and UGC have not received any complaints against the universities' admission schemes for outstanding secondary six students.
   
   
3. Early this year, UGC has reached the following understanding with the institutions on their admission schemes of secondary six students:
   
   
   1. advance admission of secondary six students should be based on exceptional merit, and institutions have to absorb any additional resources requirements; and
      
      
   2. the number of outstanding secondary six students admitted by an institution should not exceed 2% of its first-year-first-degree places for that academic year.
      
   
   As the schemes only involve a small number of secondary six students, the normal operation of the Joint University Programmes Admissions System will not be affected. UGC will keep the schemes under review to ensure that they will not cause inconvenience to the secondary schools.
   

Annex

Admission schemes for outstanding secondary six students of
UGC-funded institutions in 2002/03 academic year

 Note (1) : Since each outstanding secondary six student may apply for admission to more than one institutions at the same time, the total number of applicants is the total number of applications received.