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Cost warning on extra year at university

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A proposal to extend higher education from three to four years needs careful examination as it would trigger huge costs, a senior adviser has warned.

Antony Leung Kam-chung, an Executive Councillor and chairman of the influential Education Commission, had reservations about the recommendation, to be announced today.

Heads of the eight universities and colleges will state at a joint conference their proposal to overhaul the education system to introduce five-year secondary, one-year matriculation and four-year tertiary education.

The Advanced Level examination will be scrapped and students will be granted conditional offers to university places based on their Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination results.

Mr Leung said he welcomed proposals from the public and heads of tertiary institutes.

'Tertiary education is an important part of education in Hong Kong,' he said. 'However, as Hong Kong offers higher education places to 18 per cent of its young people, the structure of education must also take care of the other 82 per cent.' He also said any change would carry significant financial implications.

'This has to be evaluated very carefully, given the medium term economic outlook.' Mr Leung said the change was a complicated issue and any review should be conducted in stages.

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