Choi to seek additional funding for university towns

Secretary for Education Christine Choi said on Friday that her bureau would seek additional funding for the development of university towns at the Northern Metropolis. In an interview with a local news outlet, she said universities would require much more funding from the financial secretary than the HK$10 billion loan set aside for them to build campuses there. However, she also pointed out that the government had to take into consideration a need to prioritise public funding allocations. Given that the development at the three university towns – located in San Tin, Hung Shui Kiu and Ta Kwu Ling – would be carried out in phases, Choi said she believed institutions would not need to go heavily into debt in the process. The government has been taking applications for the three sites slated for the Hung Shui Kiu University Town, which spans around 26 hectares in total, since September. Choi said institutions need not to be in a hurry to compete for the sites, as they only account for less than 10 percent of the 300-hectare Northern Metropolis university town area. On whether leading universities from outside the SAR would also participate in the project, Choi said she believed they would be inclined to collaborate with...