Application Procedures

An eligible applicant is

• A Hong Kong resident who has the right of abode or the right to land or to remain in Hong Kong without restriction, or a holder of one-way permit from Mainland China;
• aged from 18 to 70 (i.e. before reaching the age of 71) both at the time when the CEF course commences and submitting the respective reimbursement application; (The upper age limit has been removed for courses commenced after 1 August 2022)
• has successfully completed a CEF course and attended no less than 70% of the contactable hours of the course or such higher attendance requirement as prescribed for the course (whichever is higher), and attained the overall mark of either 50% or such higher percentage of assessment(s) as prescribed for the course (whichever is higher);
• at the time of application, and on seeking reimbursement of the tuition fee has paid the tuition fee for a CEF course;
• has not obtained any other publicly-funded financial assistance for the same course, module or unit of study credits

How to apply

Applicants can submit the 1) electronic or 2) paper-based application to the Office of the Continuing Education Fund (OCEF) within one year upon successful completion of a CEF Course and before reaching the age of 71 (The upper age limit has been removed for courses commenced after 1 August 2022.) Late applications will not be accepted by the Government.

1) Online application through “GovHK” (Electronic application)

Applicants may complete and submit the online application form through “GovHK”. Applicants who did not use “iAM Smart+” for digital signing in the online submission of the application form are required to print out a hard copy of the form and sign the Declaration in Part D and submit the printed form with original signature to the OCEF within one month after online submission in order to be considered as a valid application. Applicants using “iAM Smart+” for digital signing are not required to submit the printed copy of application form to the OCEF.

2) By post or over the counter (Paper-based application)

Applicants may submit the completed original application form [SFO 313 (2024)] with copies of the supporting documents [One-way permit (if applicable), the front page of his / her bank passbook or bank statement showing the name, account number and bank name / bank code, result of benchmark test / examination and benchmark test / examination fees receipts (if applicable)] to OCEF by post or in person.

OCEF’s address

 Units 07-11, 25/F., CDW Building

 388 Castle Peak Road

 Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong

Opening hours: Mondays to Fridays (except public holidays), 8:45 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. - 5:45pm.

Applicants may also place their applications in the drop-in boxes. Please refer to the OCEF’s website for information.

Please refer to the Guidance Notes for Application [SFO 312_E (2024)] when completing the application form.

The following information should be filled by referring to the “CEF Course Completion Information” document issued by the Programme Team:

       (i)   CEF Course Code

       (ii)  CEF Course Title

       (iii) Commencement Date

       (iv) Course Completion Date

       (v)  Date of 1st Instalment of Tuition Fee Paid

       (vi) Actual Amount of Tuition Fee Paid

Points to Note

• Only eligible applicant who has successful completed a CEF reimbursable course can apply for reimbursement of course fees. “Successful completion” of a CEF reimbursable course means that the applicant must have attended no less than 70% of the contactable hours of the CEF reimbursable course or such higher attendance requirement as prescribed for the CEF reimbursable course (whichever is higher) and attained an overall mark of either 50% or such higher percentage of assessment(s) as prescribed for the CEF reimbursable course (whichever is higher) as assessed by whichever method approved by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare (including any examination and assignment requirements with approved weighting).

• Applicants studying language proficiency course are required to pass a specified language benchmark test / examination (if applicable) at the specified (or higher) level to be eligible for fee reimbursement. Language benchmark tests / examinations should be taken by the applicants after the language proficiency course has commenced, and the applications must be submitted within one year upon the successful completion of the course (Note: according to the course completion date or the date of the specified language benchmark test / examination, whichever is later). Copies of documentary proof of passing the specified language benchmark test / examination (if applicable) and language benchmark test / examination fee receipts (if applicable) should be submitted together with copies of relevant supporting documents in respect of the language proficiency course. Reimbursement of language benchmark test / examination fees alone is not allowed.

• Applicant can make use of the same language benchmark test / examination to support the claims for more than one CEF language proficiency course but the fees for the language benchmark tests / examinations can only be claimed once. The examination date of the language benchmark test / examination must fall after the course commencement date of the reimbursable course(s) used for claiming CEF. Information on the specified language benchmark tests / examinations and levels of the language proficiency courses can be downloaded from the “Reimbursable Course List” in this website.

• A claim for reimbursement of the language benchmark test / examination fees will only be entertained if it is accompanied with a claim for the relevant language proficiency course.

• Applicants must respect of any courses, modules or units of study credits for which the fees are to be reimbursed, the applicant must not have obtained any other public funds or assistance under any other publicly-funded financial assistance schemes for the same course, such as pursuing courses funded by the University Grants Committee, grants or loans from the “Financial Assistance Scheme for Post-secondary Students” administered by the WFSFAA, subsidy from the “Non-means-tested Subsidy Scheme for Self-financing Undergraduate Studies in Hong Kong” or “Study Subsidy Scheme for Designated Professions / Sectors”, etc.

• If an eligible applicant obtained loans from the “Extended Non-means-tested Loan Scheme” (ENLS) administered by WFSFAA to meet the payment of fees for a CEF reimbursable course, the CEF reimbursement would first be used to offset any outstanding ENLS loans borrowed by the applicant for paying the tuition fee in respect of the same course. Any remaining balance of the CEF reimbursement after offsetting the loan amount will be credited to the designated account of the applicant.

• Applicants are required to sign a ‘Statement of Consent and Acknowledgement’ provided by the institutions / course providers upon the enrollment of CEF course. The eligibility for fee reimbursement under the CEF may be affected if the applicants failed to sign the relevant statement or confirmed not to apply for fee reimbursement under the CEF for the enrolled course and do not consent to the disclosure of their personal data to the Specified Public Authorities.

• The OCEF will not accept reimbursement of additional courses which are not stated on the Application Form. Applicant may submit a new application for reimbursement of other courses.

• In processing the applications for fee reimbursement of courses to which commenced on or after 1 August 2022, if there is an unused balance for the first HK$10,000 subsidy, the unused balance and co-payment amount by the applicant of the first HK$10,000 subsidy would be used for calculation of the fee reimbursement amount first. The balance of the remaining course fee after deduction of the reimbursement amount under the first HK$10,000 subsidy will then be allotted to the remaining HK$15,000 subsidy for calculation.

• Applicants are required to input the course in sequence from the earliest course commencement date up to the latest one when completing the application form. OCEF may rearrange the sequence of course submitted for the purpose of maximizing the reimbursed amount.

• Failure to provide all the necessary documents may lead to the rejection of the application.

• The CEF account for an applicant will be invalidated when the full sum of HK$25,000 subsidy has been reimbursed.

Enquiries

For more specific enquiries, such as course admission criteria and schedules, please use the enquiry number listed under individual course descriptions in the Prospectus that bear the CEF logo [  ] or refer to the School website containing the list of CEF reimbursable courses.

Applicants can check the usable balance of subsidy by logging in the CEF website and use the subsidy calculator to estimate the eligible subsidy.

For applications containing complete information, application results will normally be released by the OCEF not more than eight (8) weeks from the date of receipt of applications.