Hong Kong universities can ‘double intake of non-local students’ under proposal to attract more talent to city
- Proposal will not affect the number of subsidised places for Hongkongers as non-local students will pay tuition fees in full, source says
- Intake of non-local students would jump from around 3,000 to 6,000 in the 2024-25 academic year, based on the number of publicly funded first-year degree places
The proposal, which has been submitted to education authorities, would not affect the number of subsidised places for Hongkongers as non-local students would pay tuition fees in full, a source from the university sector said on Tuesday.
The source said that under the scheme, proposed by the University Grants Committee (UGC), the quota for non-local admissions to undergraduate programmes would be lifted from the equivalent of 20 per cent of the number of approved subsidised places to 40 per cent. The UGC allocates government money to higher education institutions.
Based on 15,000 publicly funded first-year degree places, the intake of non-local students would jump from around 3,000 to 6,000.
“The initiative is against the backdrop of the [government] blueprint of turning Hong Kong into a regional education hub and the policy of attracting talent globally,” the source said.
The eight publicly funded universities charge non-local undergraduates between HK$140,000 and HK$182,000 annually, while tuition fees for local students are HK$42,100 a year.
Similar arrangements have been suggested for non-local postgraduate admission places, although demand is far lower than for undergraduate programmes.