A SCHEME to let local students study in the United Kingdom is to end.
The decision to scrap the project, run by the Hong Kong and British Governments, was welcomed by educationalists, who said the money could serve a better purpose in the territory.
The scheme, introduced in 1983, supports students pursuing education at national diploma or first degree level in the UK.
An average of 2,000 people have benefitted every year at a cost of more than HK$50 million shared between the two governments. Last year each student was granted GBP2,200 (about HK$25,670).
But with the expansion of local tertiary education, the Hong Kong Government has decided to abolish the scheme starting from the 1994-95 academic year.
The secretary of the Hong Kong Association for Continuing Education, Mervyn Cheung Man-ping, said the scheme had been introduced to provide an alternative at a time when only a small number of students could enter tertiary institutions in Hong Kong.