More than 800 OUHK students awarded scholarships by the Government

This year, the Government’s Self-financing Post-secondary Scholarship Scheme (SPSS) awarded about HK$13.67 million in scholarships to 834 students from The Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) (For details, please see table 1). Both the number of awardees and the amount of scholarships surpassed last year's record, reflecting the outstanding performance of OUHK students in both academic and non-academic pursuits.

Vice President (Academic) of the OUHK Prof. Reggie Kwan Ching-ping and nearly 50 student representatives attended today’s (30 April) Presentation Ceremony where the Secretary for Education Mr Kevin Yeung Yun-hung presented certificates to the awardees. Each awardee has been granted a scholarship with a value ranging from HK$10,000 to HK$80,000, depending on the type of scholarship.

Miss Tung Ka-wai, a year three student in the Bachelor of Arts with Honours in English and Comparative Literature programme, is among the 179 OUHK students who received the Outstanding Performance Scholarship (OPS). Ka-wai is a mature student who has taken four gap years before joining the OUHK. In the beginning, she worried about being slightly older than her fellow classmates and was not able to get along well with them. However, with her positive personality and the heartwarming support from her teachers and classmates, Ka-wai settled in quickly and was able to meet the academic demands of the university. She managed to achieve satisfactory results in almost all the subjects and obtained an average GPA of 3.84 since year one. This is the second time she received the OPS and she is thrilled to be awarded again. She thanked the University for the nomination, and her teachers for motivating her to go after her interests in arts and literature while striving for high academic performance. She added that the scholarship had not only greatly reduced her financial burden, but also provided an important impetus for her to pursue further studies in arts and culture.

Mr Chan Tsz-ming, a year three student of the Bachelor of Sports and Recreation Management with Honours programme, is another OUHK awardee and he earns the Talent Development Scholarship. Tsz-ming is a player of the Hong Kong Hockey Junior Team and he has represented Hong Kong to participate in multiple regional and international competitions over the past nine years. He is excited to have received the scholarship and is planning to spend the scholarship funding on training programmes which could help improve his physical fitness and performance. He deeply appreciates the OUHK's support for allowing him to maintain a good balance between sports and study. He also thanked the University for providing a right blend of professional knowledge and skills in sports administration and business management, as well preparing him for a career in sports management in the near future.

A total of 433 OUHK students received the Reaching Out Awards this year. Each of them will be given a HK$10,000 scholarship to participate in a wide range of overseas learning and service programmes, including the study tours to Russia, Netherlands and United Kingdom, the Earth Science Exchange Programme co-organized by the OUHK and Yunnan University, the AIESEC “Break Up the Barriers” voluntary service programme in Turkey, and many more other meaningful and rewarding activities. The outreach experiences will allow students to further broaden their international vision as well as to enhance their communication skills.

SPSS was set up in 2011 by the Self-financing Post-secondary Education Fund of the Hong Kong Government to promote quality and sustainable development of the self-financing post-secondary education sector. To learn more about the Scheme, please visit: http://www.cspe.edu.hk/content/Overview-Measures-Fund-SPSS

Table 1:
OUHK’s result in the 2018/19 Self-financing Post-secondary Scholarship Scheme