Data showed mainlanders accounted for 64.75 per cent of non-local, first-year students at the University of Hong Kong, the city’s oldest tertiary education institution. Photo: Dickson LeeAre Hong Kong’s universities attracting enough students from outside mainland China?
The proportion of first-year, non-local undergraduates from mainland China at Hong Kong’s public universities has increased to 75 per cent. The percentage of intake from other countries has fallen after the government doubled the cap on such intakes, raising concerns the city cannot meet its goal of internationalising its campuses.
Data obtained by the South China Morning 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. But they only represented 26 per cent of the pool, down from 29 per cent.
In his 2023 policy address, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said the enrolment ceiling for non-local students at the eight public universities would be doubled from 20 per cent to 40 per cent of places starting from 2024-25.
The city leader said the initiative was key in turning Hong Kong into an international post-secondary education hub.
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Lawmaker Tik Chi-yuen said the data suggested the government was still “very far” from its goal of internationalising the city’s universities.
“The number of mainland Chinese students at some universities is so big that it makes them look like affiliated universities of mainland institutions,” he said.
“It seems our universities regarded the admission of non-local students as an industry to operate. They emphasise the number and the income they can admit and generate but don’t care too much about the student mix,” he said.
The legislator called for greater promotion of the city’s universities overseas, particularly in Southeast Asia.
Lee also devoted part of his most recent policy address last October to plans to establish a “Study in Hong Kong” brand.
The UGC data showed mainlanders accounted for 93 per cent and 91 per cent of non-local, first-year students at the Education University of Hong Kong (EdU) and Lingnan University, respectively, the highest level among the eight institutions.
The next top entries were Polytechnic University (PolyU) and Baptist University, where mainlanders accounted for 86 per cent and 83 per cent of all non-local, first-year students, respectively.
The lowest level was recorded at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) at 54 per cent.
Regarding non-local undergraduate students of all years at the eight universities, mainlanders made up 72 per cent, an increase over the 70 per cent recorded in 2023-24.
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While Lee’s policy has allowed the universities to raise the non-local student cap to 40 per cent, none have reached that threshold yet.
The University of Hong Kong, the city’s oldest tertiary education institution, has reached 30 per cent, while PolyU stands at 29 per cent. HKUST has achieved 26 per cent, and Lingnan University is at 23 per cent.
The UGC figures also showed that 2,287 academic staff at the city’s public universities were from the mainland, accounting for 41 per cent of the overall tally in 2024-25 compared with 38 per cent in the previous academic year.
The universities also had 1,604 local academic staff and another 1,622 from outside the mainland, making up about 29 per cent of the total each.
Among the eight public universities, only Baptist and EdU had more local academic staff than mainland ones. Scholars from the mainland accounted for most of those working at the other six institutions.
But Tik said the background of staff from the mainland was quite international, noting most of them were educated overseas.
“Though their nationality is Chinese, they may have studied and worked overseas for a long period of time. They came to Hong Kong to work in our universities for better salaries and research space,” he said. “Some of them are even world-class talent.”