Self-financing Local Programmes

Self-financing Post-secondary Education Policy

It has all along been the Government’s policy to support the parallel development of the publicly-funded and self-financing post-secondary education sectors. The self-financing post-secondary education sector helps diversify our higher education system and provides quality, flexible and diversified study pathways with multiple entry and exit points for young people with different aspirations and abilities to meet the demands arising from the ever-changing economy.

In pursuance of this policy, the Education Bureau exercises oversight of the self-financing institutions, focusing on the institutions’ transparency of operations, quality assurance and good governance, while implementing a host of measures to support the institutions and providing subsidies for students to promote a healthy and sustainable development of the self-financing sector.

Post Secondary Colleges Ordinance (Cap. 320)

The Post Secondary Colleges Ordinance (Cap. 320) is the main legal framework regulating self-financing local post-secondary programmes. It aims to govern the registration and regulation of Post Secondary Colleges and their consequent exemption from the provisions of the Education Ordinance (Cap. 279). At present, the following Post Secondary Colleges are registered under Cap. 320:

The Post Secondary Colleges (Amendment) Ordinance 2025 has been gazetted on 4 July 2025 to amend 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 for institutions offering local self-financing post-secondary programmes at the sub-degree and degree levels to promote coherence in quality assurance, governance, positioning and overall co-ordination.

The commencement date of the major provisions of the Post Secondary Colleges (Amendment) Ordinance 2025 is 1 August 2026. It also provides an additional two-year statutory transitional period until 31 July 2028 for relevant institutions that are not currently registered under Cap. 320 to complete the registration procedures.

According to section 2 of the amended Cap. 320, “Post Secondary College” means an institution that provides self-financing degree or sub-degree education, but excludes an institution that solely provides regulated courses as defined by section 2(1) of the Non-local Higher and Professional Education (Regulation) Ordinance (Cap. 493).

To facilitate the understanding of the various requirements and administrative arrangements in respect of Post Secondary Colleges and relevant persons (i.e. members of Board of Governors, Presidents, Vice-Presidents and teachers) under the amended Cap. 320, the Education Bureau has promulgated the Administrative Guidelines for the Post Secondary Colleges Ordinance (Cap. 320) which can be accessed here.

Quality Assurance

A sound, robust and transparent quality assurance mechanism is in place to ensure the provision of quality post-secondary education in Hong Kong. In the self-financing sector, post-secondary programmes offered by institutions are generally subject to the external quality assurance and accreditation by the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ), except for those offered by the institutions with self-accrediting status. The quality assurance conducted by the HKCAAVQ aims to ensure that the governance structure, academic standards and quality, teacher quality, quality assurance mechanisms and financial conditions of the institutions meet the required standards. For the details, please refer to the website of the HKCAAVQ.

Concourse for Self-financing Post-secondary Education

To enhance stakeholders’ understanding of the latest developments in the self-financing post-secondary education sector, the Committee on Self-financing Post-secondary Education has set up a one-stop online Concourse for Self-financing Post-secondary Education, which provides comprehensive information on the self-financing sector, including relevant policies, Government support measures, quality assurance mechanisms, introductions to self-financing post-secondary institutions and student statistics, etc.

The Concourse also features an Information Portal for Accredited Post-secondary Programmes, which provides information on full-time locally-accredited self-financing sub-degree and undergraduate programmes, among others, for reference by interested students, parents and teachers.