Publications and Publicity Secretary 出版及宣傳秘書 Leung Nga Man 梁雅雯

After studying for ten years, less than 18% of Hong Kong students can pursue study in a local

university. The percentage of admitting local students to the university in Hong Kong was set

to be 18% in 2000 which is far lower than the neighboring countries. On top of that,

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

enrollment rate of the local students can further reduce to 14.4% at most. Base on the

following reasons, I agree that the maximum intake of non-local applicants to HKU should be

reduced.



According to the University Grants Committee, the cost of supporting an undergraduate

student is $233,000 annually. A local student needs to pay $42,100 for their study in the

university while a non-local student who is admitted to The University of Hong Kong needs to

pay $135,000. The school fee for those non-local students who go to Lingnan University and

Hong Kong Baptist University is $110,000 and for those who study in The Hong Kong

Institute of Education is $100,000. Although the non-local students are paying a lot more

than the local students, the amount they pay still cannot cover the cost. Hong Kong taxpayers

are subsidizing the non-students a lot while non-local students are required to pay more or

even all the full cost in other countries. Moreover, reported by the South China Morning Post,

a survey done by the Association of Mainland Students (內地生聯合會) shows that over 70%

of the mainland students who are studying in Hong Kong will not choose to work and stay in

Hong Kong after graduation. Hong Kong is paying a lot but cannot be benefited much in

return. Hence, it would be a wise act to cut down the maximum intake of non-local applicants.



The intake of non-local students aims at introducing different cultures local students and

enriching the student community as a whole. According to the statistic released by the

University of Hong Kong, in the academic year 2013-2014, the number of mainland

applicants is 12,513 which are three times more than the overseas applicants. At last, 329

mainland applicants were admitted to The University of Hong Kong while only 209 overseas

applicants succeeded. Moreover, as revealed by the statistic, mainland students outnumber

the oversea students for the past ten years. In fact, the number of mainland students in the

University of Hong Kong is unreasonably high as they account for more than half of the total

number of non-local students which cannot help fulfill the aim of the policy. If the number of

the mainland students is reduced, the total number of non-local students would decrease

sharply. There is a room for the university to accept more local students. Therefore, the

maximum intake of non-local applicants to HKU should be reduced.