Government Passes Bill to Enhance Regulation of Self-Financing Post-Secondary Institutions in Hong Kong

Government welcomes passage of Post Secondary Colleges (Amendment) Bill 2025

The Government welcomed the passage of the Post Secondary Colleges (Amendment) Bill 2025 by the Legislative Council today (June 25), which aims to enhance the regulatory and quality assurance mechanisms of self-financing post-secondary institutions, with a view to facilitating the healthy and sustainable development of the self-financing post-secondary education sector.

The Bill amends the Post Secondary Colleges Ordinance (Cap. 320). Its three key features are: (i) reforming the regulatory regime for the self-financing post-secondary education sector to improve governance, ensuring the quality, transparency and accountability of self-financing institutions; (ii) removing barriers suitably, including rationalising the arrangements for self-financing institutions to award degrees, to enhance efficiency and effectiveness; and (iii) forging a unified regulatory framework to promote coherence in quality assurance, governance, positioning and overall co-ordination.

The Secretary for Education, Dr Choi Yuk-lin, said, "Self-financing post-secondary institutions form an integral part of the post-secondary education sector in Hong Kong. The Government has long supported the parallel development of the self-financing and publicly funded post-secondary education sectors. The passage of the Bill signifies an important milestone for the development of the self-financing sector. We envisage that the enhanced regulatory framework can further support the capacity expansion and quality enhancement of the self-financing sector, with a view to harnessing its advantages in terms of flexibility and diversity to cultivate talent for the country and Hong Kong, and make more proactive contributions towards Hong Kong's development into an international post-secondary education hub and building China into a leading country in education."

The Post Secondary Colleges (Amendment) Ordinance 2025 will be gazetted on July 4. Save for clauses relating to the delegation of authority to approve the award of degrees from the Chief Executive in Council to the Secretary for Education, which will come into operation on August 1, 2025, the commencement date of the other major provisions will be August 1, 2026. For relevant institutions that are not currently registered under Cap. 320, there will be a transitional period of around three years, until July 31, 2028, to complete the registration procedures.

The Education Bureau, in collaboration with the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications, will continue to maintain close liaison with self-financing institutions to ensure the smooth implementation of the enhanced regulatory framework and relevant transitional arrangements.

Notes exchange service and electronic lai-see for Chinese New Year

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:

As the Chinese New Year draws near, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the three note-issuing banks (The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited and Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited) announced today (January 13) that new notes and good-as-new notes, i.e. used notes which are in good condition and suitable for use as lai-see, will be available for exchange at branches of the three note-issuing banks from February 3 (Tuesday) to February 16 (Monday).

The HKMA encourages the public to use electronic channels including the Faster Payment System available via online or mobile banking, or other e-wallet services for giving lai-see. Giving electronic lai-see is simple and convenient, and will contribute to sustainable development by reducing the usage of physical red packets and banknotes. Major banks and electronic payment operators will encourage giving electronic lai-see by various promotional programmes. The public may refer to the details of these programmes as and when announced by banks and operators.

The three note-issuing banks will put in place appropriate measures to facilitate the notes exchange, including:

(1)

Advancing the opening hour to 8am on the first 3 days of the service period, i.e. February 3 (Tuesday) to February 5 (Thursday), and dedicating the aforesaid additional operation hour, i.e. 8am to 9am, exclusively for providing the notes exchange service;

(2)

Offering online booking service for both new notes and good-as-new notes starting from January 27 (Tuesday), details of which will be announced by individual note-issuing banks within next week; and

(3)

Putting in place crowd management measures such as distributing physical tickets and implementing queue management when needed.

Members of the public who desire to use cash for giving lai-see may wish to check for any remaining stock of new notes or good-as-new notes at home before going to a bank. Also, there is no need to rush to exchange for new notes and good-as-new notes during the first few days of the service period as banks will ensure the supply of these notes throughout the service period.

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