Hong Kong public universities on recruiting blitz for foreign students as mainland Chinese numbers among undergrads soar past 10,000
- Mainlanders make up seven in 10 non-local undergrads, with a drop in students from ‘rest of the world’
- Eight public universities get HK$30 million to go on overseas drives to internationalise their enrolments
The number of mainland Chinese enrolled in undergraduate courses at Hong Kong’s public universities has soared past 10,000 for the first time on record, accounting for about 70 per cent of all non-local students.
The higher proportion is the result of a wider push by the city’s universities to internationalise their student bodies, and one country that has emerged as a target of those efforts is India.
Hong Kong’s eight public universities will embark on a joint recruitment trip to the country in the first half of this year, with one aim being attracting highly sought-after students who excel in maths and are viewed as key to helping the city achieve its long-term development goals.
According to the University Grants Committee (UGC), which allocates funding, Hong Kong has 14,756 non-local undergraduate students enrolled in its public universities. They included 10,358 from the mainland, accounting for 70.2 per cent of all non-local students and up by 50 per cent from six years ago.
The data showed that about 4,400 non-local students came from “the rest of the world”, a 15 per cent decrease over five years ago, although the UGC does not provide a breakdown by countries.