Bulletin Spring 1990

1989 Freshmen in Profile The annual surveys on new students of the University conducted by the Office of Student Affairs usually reveal interesting statistics about the undergraduate population. The survey on first-year undergraduate students admitted to the University in the academic year 1989-90 has recently been completed. Of the 1714 full-time students ， 96.8 per cent responded to the survey. As for part-time degree programmes, returns from all 235 freshmen were received. Freshmen in the Full-time Programmes Sex, Age, Religion Statistics reveal that the overall male to female ratio among the freshmen is 1:1.04. However, male students stil l form the majority in the Faculty of Medicine (78.8 per cent) and the Faculty of Science (76.5 per cent). The average age of the students is 18.4 years, while male and female averages are 18.5 and 18.3 respectively. Some 70 per cent of the students profess no religious belief. The others are mainly Protestants (23.1 per cen t ) and Catholics (5.8 per cent). Pre-university Non-academic Life and Working Experience Freshmen in general have had an active non-academic life before entering the University: 99.5 per cent of them have participated in various extracurricular activities at school, and about 83 per cent have travelled outside Hong Kong. Some five per cent of the freshmen have had the experience of full-time employment, 13 per cent the experience of part-time employment and 63 per cent the experience of summer work prior to entering university. Family Background With respect to the level of edu c a t i onal a t t a i nment of students' parents, it has been found that 20.7 per cent of the fathers and 11.5 per cent of the mothers have received education to tertiary level while 37 per cent of the fathers and close to 30 per cent of the mothers have received secondary education. As regards their occupations, 18 per cent of the fathers are production-related workers or drivers, 14.5 per cent are store- owners or merchants, 12.7 per cent are professionals or in managerial positions. Over half of the mothers (56 per cent) are housewives, while 20.3 per cent are employed as production- related workers. Students under survey come from families with a median monthly household income of $9,345. Over 92 per cent of the freshmen have to rely in varying degrees on their families for financial support. Abou t half of them also indicate the need for government grants and loans. Some 41 per cent plan to take up summer or part-time jobs to help provide for their education expenses. Accommodation Some 47 per cent of the students live in Kowloon, about 31.5 per cent in the New Territories and 21.1 per cent on Hong Kong Island. Nearly half of them live in private housing. The percentage of students living in public housing estates (39.2 per cent) is close to that of last year (38.9 per cent). The average household size is 5.2 persons. 1 STUDENTS 18