To strengthen the UGC-funded institutions' fund-raising capabilities and encourage the growth of a philanthropic culture in the community, the Administration has introduced a Matching Grant Scheme. The Scheme has encouraged the community to be more generous in supporting the tertiary institutions and facilitated the emergence of a philanthropic culture. It has effectively diversified the sources of funding of our tertiary institutions, and is of crucial importance in ensuring the international competitiveness and sustainable development of the higher education sector in Hong Kong.
Thus far three rounds have been successfully completed and a fourth round started. In each round we have had $1 billion of matching funds available. For the three rounds in 2003, 2005 and 2006, a total of $2.9 billion Matching Grants were allocated and the institutions also secured about $4.8 billion in private donations. The results are tabulated in
Table
5.
The Fourth Matching Grant Scheme started in January 2008. As with the third round, the grants are to be disbursed on a dollar-for-dollar matching basis up to HK$45 million, beyond which $1 is granted for every $2 donation, up to a grant ceiling of HK$250 million. The Scheme is opened for application by institutions from 1 January 2008 to 28 February 2009 and has been extended to cover two self-financing private universities in Hong Kong (namely the Open University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Shue Yan University).
