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What recurrent grants are allocated to universities? What do they comprise?
  • The Administration and the UGC adopt a triennial planning cycle in determining the recurrent funding for the UGC-funded sector, which provides the much needed certainty of funding over a three-year period. For each triennium, the UGC engages in a substantive process of discussion with the universities on their Planning Exercise Proposals (PEPs) and student number targets. Subject to a predetermined Cash Limit from the Administration for the entire sector, the UGC will then make triennial funding recommendations for the eight UGC-funded universities to the Chief Executive, reflecting the indicative student number targets and the approved PEPs as settled with the universities. The recommendations, after deliberated upon within the Administration, will be put to the LegCo Panel on Education for consultation, and to the Finance Committee for endorsement of the financial implications.

  • The 2012/13 academic year was the first year of the implementation of the New Academic Structure in the UGC-funded sector. There has been new recurrent funding for the additional year under the New Academic Structure (“new pot of money”) in addition to the existing funding (“existing pot of money”) for the three years of undergraduate study and other levels of study. In this regard, a “two pots of money” approach/funding methodology has been applied from then on.

  • Under the “existing pot of money”, the amount of block grants to the sector as a whole comprises three elements –

    (a) Teaching – about 75%

    (b) Research – about 23%

    (c) Professional Activity – about 2%


  • The “new pot of money” for the additional year under the New Academic Structure is allocated wholly as “teaching funding”.