Funding Principles
The UGC's funding methodology is based primarily on
a formula driven model to calculate separately the funding requirements
of teaching, research and professional activities of each institution.
The teaching element of the recurrent grants
is calculated by taking into account student numbers and their distribution
among different disciplines, levels and teaching modes which have an impact
on costing.
The research element of the recurrent grants
is primarily related to the number of research-active staff. The proportion
of active research workers in each department is one of the outcomes of
the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) conducted by the UGC.
There is also an element of funding on
a fixed per capita basis for all academic staff to take into account the
time they spend on professional activities which the RAE is unable to
assess or to assess adequately.
Since the funding formula is unlikely to
capture fully the various needs within a complex higher education system
such as that in Hong Kong, the outcome of the formula is used as the beginning
of the UGC's grant assessment process and not the end. In
finalising its funding recommendation, the UGC also takes into account
factors associated with individual institutions which are not normally
captured by the funding formula, e.g. stage of development, teaching quality,
etc.
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