【明報專訊】THE GOVERNMENT has launched a Study Subsidy Scheme for Designated Professions/Sectors (SSSDP), which is aimed at "nurturing talent in support of specific industries with urgent or keen demand for human resources". This is a new mode of education subsidisation. The government is reluctant to increase publicly funded university places, and each year tens of thousands of students who meet the minimum requirement for tertiary education cannot get admitted into universities. The SSSDP will somewhat alleviate the problem. However, the purpose of the scheme is to subsidise self-financing programmes offered by tertiary institutions, and the government has yet to put in place a mechanism for regulating them. The scheme's success hinges on whether the government can ensure that those institutions will offer programmes up to the required standard instead of degenerating into "degree mills".