Representative of Simon K. Y. Lee Hall Students' Association 李國賢堂學生會代表 Guan Jiayin 關嘉茵

Being an educational institution, University has its responsibilities to admit non- local

students in order to provide them with tertiary education which might not be available in

their home countries. It is, moreover, of paramount importance to have students from

multifarious cultural backgrounds for the intellectual exchange among students and it also

has a chance to experience mutual respect.



Undeniably, the intake of non-local students is beneficial to both the Universities and the

students themselves. Nonetheless, the price of such benefits needed to be reviewed

constantly.



The residential problem comes first. Non-local students do not have places to live in Hong

Kong so it is the University's obligation to provide them with accommodation. As we all know,

the residential halls in HKU has increased their proportion of non-local residents to 30 - 33%

and new residential colleges are built to cater for the needs of incoming students. However,

with the shortage of land, limited places and their absolute need in accommodation, it

somehow in turn deprives local students of chances to get into the residential places. Some of

the local students need to travel for 2 to 3 hours per day to school. The tiredness and waste

of time will somehow lower their incentive to study, let alone the intellectual engagement.



Then comes the allocation of resources. As we all know, the school fee of all University

students, local and non-local students included, are UGC funded, albeit different extent.

Taxpayers in Hong Kong need to pay a substantial amount in order to subsidize University

students of their school fees. According to the data, around one-thirds of the students are

from Mainland or overseas countries and the number is in all likelihood increasing in the

coming years. With the limited resources the Government can allocate to tertiary education,

the increase in the intake of non-local students will add fuels to the keen competition of the

local students, thereby affecting the fairness of resources allocation.



It is none too easy for Hong Kong to aid the others by providing them with chances to have

tertiary education. However, Hong Kong Government should cater for the needs of Hong

Kong people first when there are still sounds reckoning that places for tertiary education is

not enough. If Government cannot cope with the price we have paid for the benefits, then it

should be the time to review how many benefits we need.