The University of Hong Kong (HKU) admitted more than 1,200 first-year students from outside the city this autumn, a 50 per cent increase over the number for the 2023-24 academic cycle, with about half of them hailing from mainland China.
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When asked whether the proportion of mainland students would affect the university’s goal of becoming an international institution, HKU said on Thursday the percentage had remained stable in recent years and its latest batch of non-local students came from about 60 different countries and regions.
The government doubled publicly funded universities’ quota of non-local students from 20 to 40 per cent this year as part of the efforts to turn Hong Kong into a global hub for postsecondary education.
Professor Bennett Yim Chi-kin, HKU director of undergraduate admissions and international student exchange, said the university would have to balance its goal of selecting the best students based on academic merit with its aim to increase diversity.
“Mainland students being much closer to Hong Kong, they have a much better understanding of the University of Hong Kong and what we can offer. So, I think it is not surprising to see that quite a lot of our students are actually coming from mainland China,” he said.
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“But, our goal is always to continue to increase our diversity, so right now we are putting in a lot of effort into going everywhere in the world to try to promote Hong Kong.”