Page 50 - FSTE A5 Handbook

Chapter Three
General Education Curricula in
the Community College Sector

Introduction

This chapter aims to provide an overview of self-financing post-secondary education sector and
the common descriptors that guide the curriculum design of the AD/HD, followed by a review
of the GE curricula in community colleges in Hong Kong. Data used in this chapter are extracted
from a recent study conducted by the Research Team. Community College Sector (CCS) used
in this chapter refers to those local community colleges which offer AD/HD programmes with
articulation intentions preferably to the eight universities.
The self-financing post-secondary education sector has been developing substantially since
2000, when the then Chief Executive announced the policy to increase the participation
rate in post-secondary education from 33% to 60% in ten years’ time. Enrolment in full-time
accredited self-financing AD/HD programmes peaked in 2012/13, the double cohort year
and fell to around 20,000 in 2014/15 and 2015/16 (Table 1), a decrease probably due to a
drop in the number of DSE holders in our population. Graduates of AD/HD can seek further
studies in either self-financing institutes or UGC-funded universities by enrolling in top-up
degrees. Table 1 provides a snapshot on the number of places in AD/HD and top-up degrees in
2012/13, 2014/15 and 2015/16 respectively (Information Portal for Accredited Post-secondary
programmes, n.d.). Apart from this, the eight universities offer senior year entrants to degree
programmes. For example, they offered 4,559 senior year student intakes (headcount) in
2015/2016 (University Grants Committee, n.d.).
Table 1: Enrolment in full-time accredited self-financing programmes

2012/13 2014/15 2015/16
Programme
(double cohort year) enrolment enrolment
Associate Degree 31,093 20,475 20,047

Higher Diploma 27,601 19,214 17,960

Degree 15,870 21,893 23,597

Top-up degree 9,593 15,219 15,128

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