Announcing the move, Secretary for Education Michael Suen Ming-yeung made 21 other recommendations aimed at addressing concerns over the quality and recognition of associate degree programmes.
The package will now go to the Legislative Council education panel next week and then to the Finance Committee for approval.
The report recommends creating publicly funded Year Two university places in the coming academic year, and not in 2010/11 as previously scheduled.
This means the number of Year Two places at University Grants Committee-funded universities would increase from 967 to 1,927.
The report also recommends encouraging private universities to expand self-financing top-up courses for sub-degree graduates.
It also proposes extending a loan scheme - the Financial Assistance Scheme for Post-secondary Students - to cover such graduates.
Several measures are aimed at freeing up resources at sub-degree institutions so they can spend more money on teaching - for instance, doubling to 20 years the tenure of start-up loans for institutions. The loan would be interest-free for the first 10 years.
Mr Suen said the plan involved a new HK$100 million grant for institutions to provide language courses and other learning programmes to help weaker students.
The report also suggests subdegree programme providers be given priority to use vacant school premises, and charged just a token fee for land to build campuses.
A proposed loan scheme for the students would be extended to cover living expenses, costing HK$390 million in the coming academic year and rising to HK$420 million in 2012/13.
Mr Suen dismissed criticism that introducing associate degree programmes was a mistake.
"We have seen some shortcomings in sub-degree programmes since their introduction in 2000, but the aim of this review is to find out these shortcomings and seek ways to address them," he said.
He noted cases where associate degree graduates were not recognised by employers because they had not passed language subjects in open exams.
"But they were only individual and exceptional cases," he said.
"We observe that most institutions have been sticking to strict admission standards, and one area we will continue to work on is to ensure that they adhere to these standards." He said the bureau did not support a "significant" increase in the number of associate degree programmes given the plentiful supply courses.
Victor Lee Sze-kuen, chairman of the Federation for Continuing Education in Tertiary Institutions, called the HK$100 million grant a "first step" for better community colleges. If the money was well-spent, the amount should be increased, he said.
"More bridging courses are the way forward for the expansion of higher education in Hong Kong and I have heard of one or two community colleges that are planning to apply for accreditation to become private universities."
The recommendations
The hair dye used by Lois Queen
So when his parents were told that their 15-year-old son was dying of bacterial meningitis, the couple did not hesitate in donating his organs to desperately ill transplant recipients.
"I immediately said, `Let's do it'," Jim Koehne recalled. "We both thought it was a great idea. This is who Alex was."
A year later, their dream that Alex's spirit might somehow live on has become a nightmare.
It turned out that Alex did not die of bacterial meningitis, but rather a rare form of lymphoma that was not found until his autopsy, and apparently spread to the organ recipients.
The suburban New York couple was told that two of the recipients had died and two others had the donor kidneys removed and were being treated for cancer.
The revelation has led two hospitals to revise transplant procedures, although the state Health Department found that no one was to blame. Experts said getting cancer from an organ donor was extremely rare: only 64 cases have been identified in a national study of 230,000 cases, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.
"A 15-year-old boy's organs are a gift from the Almighty," said transplant surgeon Lewis Teperman, noting that most organ donors were much older than Alex. "Usually the organs from a 15-year-old are perfect. In this case, they weren't."
Dr Teperman is the director of transplantation at New York University Medical Centre, where two of the transplants were done, and lead author of a report on the case.
In March of last year, Alex was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital on Long Island after treatment at another hospital for nausea, vomiting, severe back and neck pain, seizures and double vision. Doctors told his parents they suspected he had bacterial meningitis - an infection of the fluid surrounding the spinal cord and brain - although tests did not reveal what bacteria caused it.
He was treated with antibiotics but died on March 30 last year.
The Koehnes requested an autopsy. They were told that Alex had actually died from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, but in a rare form of the blood cancer that affects fewer than 1,500 people in the US annually.
"Our jaws dropped," Mr Koehne recalled. "We walked out of there crying."
Mr Koehne and his wife, Lisa, later learned that a 52-year-old man died of the same rare lymphoma about four months after receiving Alex's liver.
The couple said they were also told a 36-year-old woman who received Alex's pancreas also developed lymphoma and died.
Two patients who received the kidneys were undergoing cancer treatment and were faring well, according to a report in the American Journal of Transplantation.
All four recipients were notified immediately of the autopsy results and received chemotherapy, the report said. None has been publicly identified.
The report's authors noted a diagnosis of bacterial meningitis does not preclude donating organs, because the recipients can be given antibiotics to prevent infection, but they concluded "a more thorough evaluation of the donor" should be done when there is any doubt.
SCMP.
Games organisers vowed to defeat the "few Tibet separatists" who threatened to spoil the biggest relay in Olympic history.
Speaking in Beijing hours after similar protests during the torch relay in London, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said he was very concerned about the protests and about the recent deadly unrest in Tibetan-populated regions.
"The torch relay has been targeted. The IOC has expressed its serious concern and calls for a rapid peaceful resolution in Tibet," he said.
The comments were the sternest yet by Dr Rogge, who has repeatedly defended the awarding of the Games to China and said at the weekend the IOC saw "no momentum" for a boycott of Games events.
French officials cut short the torch relay after protesters had repeatedly held up its progress.
On the Eiffel Tower's first floor, Green Party activist Sylvain Garel lunged for the first torch-bearer, shouting, "Freedom for the Chinese". Security officials pulled him back.
After just 200 metres, protesters confronted the relay. Security officials extinguished the torch and put it on a bus.
Crowds booed and jeered its progress down the Champs Elysee - the most famous street in Paris - and protesters, among them city councillors, hung banners depicting the Olympic rings as handcuffs from landmarks including City Hall, where a Tibetan flag also flew. Mayor Bertrand Delanoe cancelled a ceremony there marking the torch's passage, citing Chinese objections.
One protester tried to douse the flame with a fire extinguisher.
Each time officials resumed the relay, it was interrupted. The flame was put out at least twice. Police made 28 arrests.
When the torch was whisked to the stadium where the relay was to have ended, fighting broke out nearby between French pro-Tibet activists and demonstrators carrying Chinese flags. The French activists spat on them and shouted, "Fascists!"
The head of the French Olympic Committee called the protests against the relay highly regrettable.
Wang Hui , spokeswoman for the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, was defiant. "The Tibet separatists are doomed to failure. Nothing can stop the smooth operation of the torch relay. It will be a success. We will not change our schedule," she said.
Earlier, a government spokesman described Sunday's demonstrations in London as "vile misdeeds" by "disgusting" separatists seeking to sabotage the relay.
Dr Rogge, clearly rattled by the images of protesters trying to snuff out the flame, called on the 205 national Olympic committees meeting in Beijing this week to form a united front to prevent the Games being overshadowed by violent protests.
"Our major responsibility is to offer a good Games to the athletes. The world expects it, and the unity of the Olympic movement will deliver it," he said.
Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Reuter
A neurosurgeon, whose review of international research into the effects of mobiles has just been published online, found there was mounting evidence that when they are used heavily over many years, the radiation they produce harms the brain.
Vini Khurana said people should use land lines whenever possible and children should only use mobiles in emergencies.
"There is a significant and increasing body of evidence for a link between mobile phone usage and certain brain tumours. The link between mobile phones and brain tumours should no longer be regarded as a myth," wrote Dr Khurana, a specialist at Canberra Hospital and associate professor of neurosurgery at the Australian National University's medical school.
He found that people who had used a mobile phone for at least 10 years were two to four times as likely as non-users to develop a brain tumour on the side of the head where they usually used a handset.
"In the years 2008-2012, we will have reached the appropriate length of follow-up time to begin to definitively observe the impact ... on brain tumour incidence rates," he wrote.
The findings could have significant implications for Hong Kong, which has one of the world's highest concentrations of mobile phones. There are 10.6 million mobiles for the city's 7 million residents. Nearly one in 20 households no longer has a fixed-line phone.
Dr Khurana's findings, reported on the TechNewsWorld website, are based on a 14-month review of studies on the effects of mobile phone use published in medical publications and in the press.
Dr Khurana said the telecoms industry needed to develop and promote safe "EMR/radiofrequency-shielding devices for mobile and cordless phones and Bluetooth and headset accessories". It should also refine hands-free speakerphone options.
His findings echo a study published in the journal Occupational Environmental Medicine in September that found people who used mobile phones for 10 years or more were twice as likely to get a malignant tumour on the side of the brain where they held the handset.
Hong Kong's Department of Health said it had not been able to determine if prolonged use of mobiles was harmful but would continue to monitor developments in the field.
"There is so far no conclusive evidence linking the use of mobile phones to adverse health effects," a spokesman said.
But he warned against children using mobiles for non-essential calls because of this uncertainty.
"In view of the current gap in scientific knowledge, as a precautionary measure, the use of mobile phones by children for non-essential calls should be discouraged," he said.
Mobile phone manufacturer Motorola said its products were designed and built in line with science-based safety guidelines. "Numerous evaluations by scientific experts have reached the same conclusion: wireless communications products operating within recognised guidelines pose no demonstrated health risk."
SCMP. Apr 5, 2008.
