Non-local exams on rise? Hong Kong public universities admit fewer DSE pupils

Seven of Hong Kong’s eight publicly funded universities have admitted a smaller proportion of students who took the local school curriculum over the past decade, while increasing their intake of those who sat international exams, official statistics show.

The only one institution to buck the trend is the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), where the proportion of local students who sat the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) has increased during the same period.

The Post analysed the latest admissions data published by the University Grants Committee (UGC), a government advisory body responsible for allocating funding to higher education institutions. The data outlined the academic qualifications of first-year students admitted to the eight public universities over the past decade.

Among the 15,000 to 16,000 students enrolled annually at all eight public universities, 80 per cent were admitted via the DSE route in the 2015-16 academic year. This figure gradually declined to a record low of 74 per cent in 2024-25.

The drop equates to around 500 fewer DSE students being admitted to public universities in 2024-25 compared with 2015-16.

All DSE students must apply through the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (Jupas) to enrol in the city’s public universities. Local students studying the DSE curriculum in public schools are exempt from paying tuition fees for their secondary education.