The student unions of five tertiary institutes yesterday decided to call off their boycott plans scheduled for this week after a meeting with Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li.

The students decided to adopt a wait-and-see approach and give the government more time to ponder over the proposed educational funding cuts, said Ray Or, president of the Students' Union of Polytechnic University.

During the five-hour meeting, the student representatives heard the government viewpoint and its difficulties, he said.

The meeting resulted in the cancellation of the boycott plans of Polytechnic University, University of Science and Technology, Baptist University, City University and the Institute of Education.

Students decided to boycott classes last week after Financial Secretary Henry Tang said that educational funding could be cut by less than 11 per cent spread over the next five years.

Hong Kong Federation of Students spokesman Alvin Cheng praised Li for the major points he had made during the meeting.

Li promised that he will meet with students for discussions with well defined scopes, raise the lower limit of the so called matching grants for 2004/05 and divert the funding to be cut from sub-degree programmes to student subsidies use.

Cheng said Li promised to study the possibility of delaying the cutting of subsidies for sub-degree programmes and to see if educational-funding cuts can generally be minimized.

Li's promise to appoint student representatives to sit on the University Grants Committee won the hearts of the representatives, Cheng added.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Li said that he was glad that the students understood the government's difficulties. He praised them for their mature qualities of perception.

"The students have demonstrated their care for the whole society, not just education. They understand that in a few years to come, there could be funding cuts. And they accepted that," Li said.

Commenting on the government's proposed education-funding cuts earlier yesterday, property tycoon Li Ka-shing said that the government is rightly determined to resolve the deficit problem to guard against the Hong Kong dollar being attacked.

"The government does need to cut current expenditure in order to resolve the budget-deficit problem, and education-funding cuts are, therefore, inevitable," Li said. He called on the students to resolve the matter calmly. Li added he is confident that Arthur Li shall be able to handle the issue properly.

Baptist University Vice-chancellor Ng Ching-fai expressed the hope yesterday that the government could avoid cutting education funding for the next five years. Otherwise the development of tertiary education would be hindered and the quality of education compromised.

(China Daily HK Edition November 17, 2003)