Education University of Hong Kong unveils plan to combat financial pressures

The largest teacher-training institution in Hong Kong has launched a “concerted effort” to develop strategies to ensure its financial sustainability, pointing to pressures caused by the city’s low birth rate as a chief concern.

In a recent announcement of its strategic plan extending to 2031, the Education University of Hong Kong (EdU) said it would consider ending ineffective programmes, schemes or initiatives to deploy resources to other strategic areas.

EdU stressed its planning needed to take into account a number of challenges facing the city, such as the declining birth rate, the need to provide the workforce with future-ready skills and the affordability of housing.

It said the university had already started to address financial concerns caused by the low birth rate.

“Considering the growing financial pressure on funding allocated to manpower-planned programmes amid a continual trend of low birth rates in Hong Kong, [the] university management has identified financial sustainability as one of the six principal risks for the institution,” it said in the plan.

“[EdU] launched a concerted effort across the university to formulate mitigation plans and risk treatment. Financial projections and stress tests are being performed on an ongoing basis to assess financial resilience in coping with potential future funding challenges.”