The Government welcomed the passage of the Post Secondary Colleges (Amendment) Bill 2025 by the Legislative Council today, which aims to enhance the regulatory and quality assurance mechanisms of self-financing post-secondary institutions.
The goal of the bill is to facilitate the healthy and sustainable development of the self-financing post-secondary education sector.
The bill, which amends the Post Secondary Colleges Ordinance, reforms the regulatory regime for the self-financing post-secondary education sector to improve governance, ensuring the quality, transparency and accountability of self-financing institutions, the Government explained.
In addition, the bill suitably removes barriers, including rationalising the arrangements for self-financing institutions to award degrees, and enhance efficiency and effectiveness. Furthermore, it forges a unified regulatory framework to promote coherence in quality assurance, governance, positioning and overall co-ordination.
Secretary for Education Choi Yuk-lin said that 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 published in the Government Gazette on July 4. For relevant institutions that are not currently registered under the Post Secondary Colleges Ordinance, there will be a transitional period of around three years, until July 31, 2028, for them to complete the registration procedures.
The Education Bureau, in collaboration with the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic & Vocational Qualifications, will maintain close liaison with self-financing institutions to ensure the smooth implementation of the enhanced regulatory framework and transitional arrangements.
