Representative of Wei Lun Hall Students' Association 偉倫堂學生會代表 Chan Tsz Chun Rachel 陳芷臻

It has always been a controversy over the composition of HKU students. Most likely, people

have been arguing that the proportion of non-local students in HKU is too high. To a large

extent, I agree to the motion that “The maximum intake of non-local applicants to HKU

should be reduced”.



We had our first students from mainland and other parts of the world since the academic

year of 1998-1999. Generally speaking, the current government policy regulates all local

institutions that they can admit non-local students up to 20% of their total intake quota.

However, I find it non-acceptable for the University to use up to 17.6%(as in 3 year

curriculum in the academic year of 2012-2013), ahead of the fierce competition in local

undergraduate spaces. The number of non-local students admitted has been increasing

substantially, with average increase of 10%-20% per year. In fact, this situation has not

violated any rules or regulations, but the University has its responsibilities to take a look and

take care of the fierce competition in local applicants, before they admit such a number of

non-local students. For instance, based on the official statistics, each year on average only

have 20% local JUPAS and 10% non-JUPAS applicants successfully admitted into the

University. As a local DSE student admitted through JUPAS, I do find that the competition

fierce and stressful. To me, the University of Hong Kong is a local university, which tries to

bring international thoughts to inspire local students, instead of an international university

located in Hong Kong. Therefore, the University should put local students at first priority and

try to provide them with the best resources first.



Moreover, I think the University should always remember its goal: admit 50% of the non-local

UG students from Mainland China, and 50% from other parts of the world, and to have as

diverse a group of non-local students from as possible, whilst maintaining the highest

academic standards. I think it’s true that university should strive to provide different food of

thoughts, cultural interactions and to nurture us on multiple-perspective thinking. Based on

these circumstances, if the University wishes to nurture us through internationality, then it

has to balance the intake of non-local students, both from Mainland and the rest of the world.

To conclude, I think HKU has to lower the maximum intake of non-local applicants for the

benefits of its local students.