By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-03-10 01:01:21 | Updated at 2025-03-10 06:25:10
5 hours ago
The proportion of first-year, non-local undergraduates at Hong Kong’s public universities who come from mainland China has increased to 75 per cent, while the percentage of the intake hailing from other countries has fallen, raising concerns over whether the city can meet its goal of internationalising its campuses.
Data obtained by the Post from the University Grants Committee (UGC) also showed that 5,582 non-local, first-year students were admitted by the city’s eight universities in the 2024-25 academic year, a 48 per cent increase from the year before.
The figures indicated that the proportion of mainland students among the latest batch had increased by 55 per cent.
Mainland students now accounted for 74 per cent of the city’s pool of non-local, first-year students, up from 71 per cent in 2023-24.
The number of non-local students coming to the city from outside the mainland also increased from 1,111 to 1,463, yet they only represented 26 per cent of the pool, down from 29 per cent.
Lawmaker Tik Chi-yuen said the data suggested the government was still “very far” from its goal of internationalising the city’s universities.
