Fewer Hong Kong students have secured a university place in the city and received an offer from their top three choices through a central allocation system, with an education consultant attributing the decline to more applicants attaining the minimum entry requirements.
Among the 39,634 applicants who joined the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (JUPAS), 15,776, or 39.8 per cent were offered a place at schools under JUPAS, according to the results announced on Wednesday.
This includes undergraduate courses offered by the eight public universities, self-financing bachelor programmes of Hong Kong Metropolitan University or a Higher Diploma programme of the Education University of Hong Kong.
Last year, 16,149, or 40.4 per cent of the 39,948 JUPAS applicants were offered a place.
Among the successful applicants this year, 13,797 got a spot in their top three choices, 688 fewer people than that of last year.
Ng Po-shing, a consultant at student guidance centre Hok Yau Club, attributed the decrease to more students meeting the minimum requirement, citing the higher success rate for core subject, citizenship and social development, in the university entrance exams, Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE).
“When more students attain the minimum requirement, it also means more people will compete for the universities’ places,” he said.
A total of 18,392 secured the minimum entrance requirement this year, according to the examination authorities’ announcement last month, compared with 16,914 last year.
That means around 2,600 students getting the minimum marks this year were not able to secure a place in the main round of JUPAS.
Chinese University of Hong Kong announced that five out of eight top scorers aspiring to be doctors in this year’s exam were admitted to its medical school.
“According to the information, nearly half of the top 100 students sitting Diploma of Secondary Education [exams] picked CUHK’s medical programme,” the medical school of CUHK said in a press release.
University of Hong Kong said it admitted four top scorers, without specifying what they would study.
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology announced its global business programme admitted one top scorer.
The subject, citizenship and social development, replaced liberal studies in 2021, following accusations that the latter’s curriculum radicalised youngsters. The new syllabus focuses on national security, identity, lawfulness and patriotism.
It has only two grades of “attained” or “unattained”, unlike liberal studies, which was graded on a seven-graded scale like other subjects in the DSE exams.
The university’s minimum entrance requirement requires scoring at least level 3 in both Chinese and English language subjects, level 2 in mathematics, an “attained” grade in a new core subject and level 2 in two electives.
According to examination authorities, 93.7 per cent candidates received the “attained” grade in the new subject, higher than the 89.6 per cent students attaining level 2 or above in liberal studies last year.
