Centralised admissions for Open University

System will be used for courses similar to those of publicly funded institutions

The Open University of Hong Kong will be brought under the centralised admissions system next year as its full-time undergraduate programmes continue to expand.

The University Grants Committee (UGC) has also been asked to include OUHK 'under its umbrella' for the purposes of higher-education planning, although the university does not expect to receive government funding.

OUHK will be entitled to use the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (Jupas) from next year, but only for programmes similar to those offered by the eight publicly funded institutions. Distance-learning programmes will not be included.

As all its full-time first degrees currently last four years, while most other university degrees take three years to complete, the majority of OUHK full-time programmes will not be included in Jupas until 2012, when Hong Kong will switch to four-year degrees.

However, OUHK chiefs are considering setting up a number of temporary three-year degrees so its students can be admitted through Jupas before 2012.

'This is a clear signal of the quality of our programmes and our students. It is very definite recognition, although we have gone into full-time programmes for only a few years, of the success of this strategy. We will be recognised as part of the higher-education system along with the other universities,' said OUHK president John Leong Chi-yan.