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Tuition fees at public universities will increase by HK$2,400 next year, with further rises of around the same amount planned for each of the following two years.

After an almost three-decade-long freeze in annual fees, the current HK$42,100 charge for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes will rise to HK$44,500 in 2025/26, HK$47,000 in 2026/27 and HK$49,500 in 2027/28 – an increase of almost 17.6 percent over the three years.

For sub-degree programmes, the current HK$15,040 will reach HK$17,800 by 2027.

A government spokesperson on Thursday said the administration is working to strike a balance between maintaining its fiscal discipline and ensuring that higher education remains affordable for students.

"Since the last tuition fees adjustment in the 1997/98 academic year, the Composite Consumer Price Index has increased by 40 percent cumulatively. Comparatively, the tuition fees adjustment is very modest this time," it said.

"The UGC-funded universities provide other financial assistance such as scholarships, bursaries and loans to needy students to ensure that no qualified students will be denied access to higher education due to financial difficulties."

The administration also said its target cost recovery rate for tuition fee levels of 18 percent, set in the early 1990s, had been declining due to more expenditure being needed to deliver higher education.

The rate is projected to drop to 12.5 percent in the next academic year, before improving slightly in 2027 to 13.4 percent following the tuition fee increases, the spokesperson said.

Chief Secretary Eric Chan stressed that the decision to put up fees has nothing to do with the government's budget deficit.

"We haven't adjusted the tuition fee for more than 20 years, so we believe there is a need to moderately adjust the tuition fee. Our goal is to subsidise students with 82 percent of their tuition fee, but we are above this target," he told reporters.

"Our plan is to increase the fees in the upcoming three years. We don't have any plan to increase the fees after three years."

Think tank Our Hong Kong Foundation welcomed the move, while calling for more support for students from lower-income families.

"The 5.5 percent [average annual increase] is somewhat mild, because we are talking about inflation of about two to three percent. We are just slightly above that, trying to catch up a little bit, in terms of the cost recovery," said Victor Kwok, the group's assistant research director.

"Obviously, on the other hand, as they gradually increase the tuition fees, they also have to proportionally increase their support, in terms of students loans, and in terms of student grants, for students from relatively less well-off families."

A miniature artist on Thursday said that an exhibition showcasing unique Central and Western District landmarks would deepen people's understanding of Hong Kong's rich history and development.

The "Look Closer and Wonder: Central and Western District in Miniature" exhibition will display 22 artworks, with nine pieces new to the collection, in celebration of the 27th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong SAR.

Carmen Poon, president of the Joyful Miniature Association, hoped the artworks could give people a fresh perspective of familiar sites in the SAR.

"I think Central and Western District is very unique. First of all, because it is the heart of Hong Kong's political, economic, financial centre and it's also a cultural centre. From this area, you can see the earliest transportation, colonial architecture and also in terms of food, for example, you have cha chaan tengs (Hong Kong style cafe) and you also have a lot of declared monuments like the Man Mo Temple," she said.

"On the one hand, you have the most classic and oldest [buildings], and on the other hand, you have the highest skyscrapers all at once. It's a melting pot of East meets West. You have Lan Kwai Fong out there, it's the gist of Hong Kong, everything that is the best is here, in Central and Western District."

One artist Hung Fai-chan spent a year recreating the corridors of an old public housing estate called "We All Grew Up Like This". He said he wanted to capture the memories of childhood games, before electronics, that many Hong Kong people grew up with.

"There are a lot of my own memories inside this piece too because I also grew up in public housing. I have a few siblings myself so I wanted to capture the childhood games we used to play, like rock, paper, scissors up the stairs," he said.

"There are also simpler games like marble shooting or even table tennis on the ground. These are all the games we would play as a child, like many children in Hong Kong."

Another artist Tim Ho worked with a team to recreate the Man Mo Temple in Sheung Wan. He said the project was challenging given its meticulous craftsmanship that took numerous site visits and extensive research to create the replica. He added the temple is an iconic landmark, so he hoped a lot of tourists would admire their artwork.

"I want people to see that it is no different from the actual Man Mo Temple. We tried our best to really capture all the details of the temple. We want people to know that there is such a beautiful piece of architecture in Hong Kong," he said.

"The beauty of our artwork is that it captures an angle you can't see fully in real life. It is usually crowded at the temple so you can't see it when it is empty. You also can't see all the little details. You will see the entire structure from a giant's perspective."

The exhibition will be held in Admiralty from June 21 to July 8.

Think tanks on Thursday urged Hong Kong and mainland authorities to provide more assistance to young people from the SAR who start businesses in Guangzhou.

The Hong Kong Coalition and the Our Hong Kong Foundation said that as of July 2023, there were 52 entrepreneurial bases in Guangzhou for young entrepreneurs from Hong Kong and Macau, with about 2,100 start-up projects underway.

A research team from the two groups visited two bases in the Nansha and Tianhe districts of Guangzhou and talked to about 10 Hong Kong entrepreneurs working in various industries there, including arts and culture, technology and catering.

The foundation’s assistant research director, Victor Kwok, said some Hong Kong startups there lack knowledge about the business environment and policies on the mainland.

“There are gaps that we observe, such as the difference between the skills, knowledge, experiences and the network of the entrepreneurs and the actual requirements of actually having the business to prosper,” he said.

Kwok highlighted challenges arising from changes in rules and policies on the mainland.

“We all know comparatively in the mainland, the policy change is sometimes faster than what is observed in Hong Kong, and that could be a challenge, because sometimes you apply for funding and then the policy itself expires before you actually get the funding,” he said.

Kwok said a single, easy-to-use government application or website would be beneficial for entrepreneurs to keep themselves updated.

Incubators in Guangzhou should also be more proactive in assisting startups to apply for funding from the mainland government, he added.

The foundation and coalition also complained that all the entrepreneurial bases offer identical services. They said authorities should differentiate them based on the startups’ development stage or industry type, making it easier for entrepreneurs to connect with the right industry players.

Health minister Lo Chung-mau on Thursday said the hardware of all hospitals needs to be of very high quality, to ensure that patients receive proper treatment.

His comment came after a power outage lasting almost an hour at Kwong Wah Hospital on Wednesday night. The redeveloped building was only completed last year.

Staff carrying out surgery had to move to another room, while 25 other operations were rescheduled.

Lo said there will be a probe into what exactly went wrong.

"The quality of construction works and hardware indeed affects our medical services. The Hospital Authority and the hospital will investigate to find out what the problems were technically," he told reporters.

Medical and health services sector lawmaker David Lam said the problem could be the fault of builders. After the hospital building opened last year, issues with electricity cables were discovered.

"We do not expect a new hospital to have a general power outage problem like that," he told RTHK.

"If that is a systematic problem with the engineering system, or the monitoring system while the building was being constructed, then I believe that's a big issue."

Justice chief Paul Lam said the recent resignations of overseas non-permanent judges from Hong Kong's top court would not undermine the city's rule of law.

Two UK judges – Lord Collins of Mapesbury and Lord Jonathan Sumption – resigned from the Court of Final Appeal earlier this month, and Beverley McLachlin from Canada said she would not stay on when her term expires at the end of July.

In an interview with RTHK marking the second anniversary of the current term of government, the secretary for justice said foreign legal experts were still confident in the SAR's judicial system, noting that two other overseas judges had joined the bench since the implementation of the national security law in 2020.

"I think it's normal for people to come and go. So, don't just focus on people leaving. There are also judges who are extending their terms and new judges who are joining," he said.

With the departure of the three judges, seven non-permanent judges from other common law jurisdictions remain at the Court of Final Appeal. The maximum number of non-permanent judges is 30.

Lam said there is no quota on the number of overseas non-permanent judges sitting on the top court.

"The Basic Law does not state that there must be eight or 10 non-permanent overseas judges on the court over a long period of time. I think quality is the most important. We are not looking at the numbers. In fact, we invite judges who are internationally prestigious and can help Hong Kong develop what is called jurisprudence, which is the quality of the law."

On the arrests made by the police in the past month over the publishing of social media posts ahead of a "sensitive date" for alleged sedition under Basic Law Article 23 national security legislation, Lam said the government is not targetting specific dates but the intention of an act.

"No matter what day or time it is, if your behaviour constitutes a crime with an incitement intent, then there's a risk you will be charged. We are targetting the words and actions. It doesn't matter what day. The day you come out and say you support 'Hong Kong independence' or want to subvert state power, there's a chance you violate the law," he said.

The government says it is working at full speed to get Hong Kong's first mega waste incinerator up and running next year, as it plans to stop using landfills for waste disposal by 2035.

On Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Department led a press tour to a man-made island near Lantau where the incinerator, called I-PARK1, is being built.

Assistant Director for Environmental Protection, Michael Lui, said the plant will be able to recover heat energy from the incineration process to generate electricity for 100,000 homes.

"In early next year, we plan to carry out a testing commissioning with a view so that we can operate the plant by the end of next year," he said.

"So we can at least achieve the very important step that we implement the first mega incinerator in Hong Kong to handle at least 3,000 tonnes of waste [each day]," he said.

Another incinerator, capable of processing about 6,000 tonnes of waste per day, will be built near Tuen Mun.

The government said construction could be completed two years ahead of schedule.

Lui said both incinerators will use new technology to ensure that emissions meet international standards and do not harm people's health or the surrounding environment.

In response to the government's plans, an environmental group said burning garbage should be the last resort, and isn't an alternative to reducing waste and increasing recycling.

Edwin Lau, founder and executive director of The Green Earth, said opening two massive incinerators risks sending the wrong message to the public.

Lau said Hong Kong currently disposes of around 11,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste on average per day, and if the goal to gradually reduce the per capita disposal rate by around 45 percent is achieved, the amount would drop to about 6,100 tonnes a day – below the capacity of the two incinerators of 9,000 tonnes.

"Only if the government thinks that their strategy action set out in the Waste Blueprint for Hong Kong 2035 is useless, otherwise the waste generation amount and the waste that requires disposal will be greatly reduced by 45 percent. This is not by the end of the blueprint timeline 2035, if reduced by 45 percent, it is saying very clearly it is a mid-term target," he said.

"That means by 2026 or 2027, this is a mid-term, then the government can already get the city to achieve this target. So I don't know why the government still needs to propose even the 6,000 tonnes, the second incinerator, which is really overcapacity."
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Last updated: 2024-06-19 HKT 22:12