The target to let 60% of senior secondary school leavers receive tertiary education before 2010 will be met earlier than expected, Education & Manpower Bureau Principal Assistant Secretary Irene Young says.

Speaking on a radio talkshow today, Ms Young said last year more than 57% of senior secondary leavers continued study in tertiary institutions. She is confident the target set by former Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa in 2000 can be met well before 2010.

Ms Young said this year more than 20 institutions are running 200 self-financed sub-degree level courses, providing 25,000 tertiary education places to senior secondary school graduates.

There are 20,000 Government-funded tertiary education places, bringing the total number of tertiary education places to nearly 50,000.

She said half of sub-degree graduates will go to the job market, while the others will continue their study. Among them, about 1,000 have been accepted by the eight Government-funded tertiary as second year students of their degree courses.

Ms Young said the Government will do its best to maintain the standard of the sub-degree courses, adding a joint assessment body has been set up by the eight universities to assess the performance of students.