Representative of Dental Society 牙醫學會代表 Liu Chi Hang 廖智恒

It is no surprise that local students complain about the increasing intake of non-local students

into HKU in these few years. People are saying these non-locals are ‘consuming’ our

resources and would take their talents and knowledge away without contributing to Hong

Kong after they graduated. There are even perceptions that the University is intentionally

admitting certain amount of non-local students coming from different countries in order to

improve its international rankings.

Nevertheless, in my opinion, the current intake percentage of non-local students is acceptable

as long as the University admits these students based on their talents and ability instead of

blindly craving for rankings.



What most local students complain about is that the non-locals students are competing for

the local students’ resources. It seems to us the numbers offers for local students decreases

as the non-local students ‘take our seats’. However, is this really the whole picture?

Officially, there are already fixed amounts of resources allocated to the local and non-local

students each year respectively. Thus, technically, the intake of local and non-local students is

isolated. Moreover, non-local students would not have the government subsidies on their

school fees. Hence the subsidy on local students would not be affected. Therefore, strictly

speaking, local and non-local students are not competing on the same resources.



However, some may argue that if the university decreases the intake of non-local students,

won’t there be more places for local students? In some extreme cases, people might even

suggest that a local university should only intake local students. Yet, do we truly understand

the meaning of having university institution? It is a place for exchanging but not spoon-
feeding knowledge, is a place for expanding our social network but not only studying.

University is a mini-society for us to experience and learn. In reality, especially in Hong Kong,

we always have to encounter people coming from all around the world. Universities offer us a

chance to work with, to exchange ideas and knowledge and to interact with international

students. As one of the best universities in Hong Kong, HKU allows us to have such valuable

experiences. What we gain is much more than knowledge but also a broader perspectives and

international experience when we graduate.



Undoubtedly, the universities offers for local students are not adequate at this moment.

Taking this year as an example, only about 18% of the secondary school students taking

HKDSE are able to get offers for the Government-funded Undergraduate Programmes.

However, what should be done is not cutting down the offers for non-local students but to

allocate more resources on undergraduate education! This has to be done by the Hong Kong

Government. This way, not only more local students can secure government-funded offers,

also the proportion of local and non-local students need not be changed. Hence, the benefits

of having international students would not be affected.


I think not a lot of people would disagree with the benefits of having non-local students. Most

importantly are why the University has to admit these students. They ought to admit these

students based on their talents, abilities, and the benefits they will bring to the school. I

believe this is the true meaning why international students really count when considering the

quality and the ranking of a university.