Life

Appeal of Hong Kong universities fades

By Wang Wen and Wang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-25 08:05

High-school teenagers and their parents in Beijing are showing less passion about universities in Hong Kong because of the high cost, although the universities will offer some scholarships.

"We received 4,000 mainland students applications in 2009, but in the years before, we received more than 10,000 applications," said Laura Lo, director of Chinese Mainland Affairs at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. "Students and parents are more sensible about applying for universities in Hong Kong now."

Increased tuition fee is a major reason behind the decrease in the number of mainland applicants.

While Hong Kong University enlarged its enrollment plan from 270 to 300 for this year, it also increased tuition fees from HK$100,000 ($12,818) to HK$119,000.

According to the Hong Kong Polytechnic University living expenses in Hong Kong can cost HK$40,000 every year and the tuition is HK$80,000 per year.

The enrollment plan is about 230 students from the mainland and most of the students will need to pay the full expenses.

"The university will offer 50 full scholarships to mainland students and departments in the university also will offer some scholarships to good students," said Lo.

The expensive tuition fees and the high cost of living in Hong Kong is deterring some students and parents who would otherwise be interested in the universities.

"I cannot afford the more than 100,000 yuan every year for my son to study in Hong Kong," said Liu Jun, a father whose son was considering the Hong Kong universities.

Liu said he only earned about 4,000 yuan per month and four-year learning would cost his family about 500,000 yuan. The number was far beyond his income and his son's performance would not be good enough for a scholarship, Liu said, his son was applying to a university in Shanghai instead.

Students also said it would not be worthwhile to spend that much to study in Hong Kong.

Jing Xinxuan, a 12th-grader with the Experimental High School attached to Beijing Normal University, said she wouldn't consider a university in Hong Kong unless the school offered her a scholarship.

"The tuition and living expenses are equivalent to native English- speaking countries like the United Kingdom or the United States, but the education quality provided by universities in Hong Kong isn't as good as theirs," she said. She has set her sights on Tsinghua University at this year's university entrance examination.

Lo said that as the universities in Hong Kong have been enrolling students in Beijing for five years, students and their parents now understand better the universities' requirements and fees.

Most Hong Kong universities demand high standards of English. The City University of Hong Kong, for example, requires applicants to achieve more than 120 in the college entrance exam out of a total mark of 150. The Hong Kong University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology also have interviews to test applicants' English capability.

Two universities in Hong Kong accept mainland students' applications through Beijing Education Examination Authority, an organization in charge of collecting the data of Beijing students' university application.

They are the Chinese University of Hong Kong and City University of Hong Kong. The closing date for applications was May 17.

Students have to apply for the other universities in Hong Kong through their admission office and most of them will be open until June.