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Hong Kong seems to have established a rather equitable and efficient student loans scheme with adequate funds from the government. However, the context of the student finance assistance scheme in Hong Kong is changing rapidly. First of all, the ceiling number of students to be included in the scheme is no longer totally predictable. The Chief Executive of the [Hong Kong Special Administration Region] HKSAR has announced the policy objective of increasing the provision of higher education to 60 per cent of the age cohort by 2010. The government has been very careful not to include students from the Open University into the [Local Student Finance Scheme] LSFS scheme, though the pressure to do so has been high. It is very likely, however, that the coverage of the loans scheme has to expand to include other categories of student.

Another factor affecting the number of students eligible for aid in the student finance assistance scheme is the condition of the general economy. Family income will fall in a downturn of the economy and the number of 'needy' students will increase. It will be extremely difficult to project the maximum fund required to support the student loans scheme if it continues to operate in an 'open-ended' mode. The present equity and adequacy levels of the loans scheme may be difficult to maintain. A financial analysis of the [Non-means-tested Loan Scheme] NLS scheme shows that while the level of repayment burden is rather low, the economic returns to completing university education are high.

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