China
Mainland universities see a growing number of Hong Kong SAR applicants
By Yuan Yuan  ·  2021-09-18  ·   Source: NO.38 SEPTEMBER 23, 2021
Students in Hong Kong SAR take part in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination on April 26 (VISUAL PEOPLE)

Amid the gloomy global outlook and much uncertainty in recent years, students in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) wanting to pursue further studies outside of the SAR have pinned down China's mainland as their primary destination of choice.

The major reason for Wong Yat-lung, a 21-year-old from Hong Kong SAR, to go study on the mainland is traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

His grandpa is a TCM doctor in Hong Kong. The herbs his grandfather used to treat patients seemed to have "magic powers" in the eyes of Wong when he was a child, which led him to embark on a career as a TCM doctor.

Among the almost 60 universities in Hong Kong, only three feature TCM as a major—and competition is rife. The mainland, on the other hand, boasts more than 20 universities dedicated to TCM and, what's more, their degrees are all acknowledged by Hong Kong. He submitted his application to the Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine in 2019 and enrolled in it that fall.

Take your pick 

Majors of choice, promising professional futures and lower tuition fees are the main reasons listed by Hong Kong applicants for seeking out higher education on the mainland. The construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area since early 2019 has fueled the deeper integration of this area.

By August this year, six universities had already set up campuses in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. On September 6, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) signed an agreement with the Shenzhen Municipal Government to establish its subdivision in Shenzhen, making it the seventh Hong Kong university branch in the region.

Max Shen Zuojun, Vice President of HKU, said all parties hope this move will provide more space for the development of the various faculties of the university and will help attract more postgraduates and professorial talent, he added.

Mainland universities have also fast-tracked their opening up to Hong Kong students. At present, there are three ways for Hong Kong students to apply to mainland universities. One is through the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (DSE), also known as the SAR's college entrance examination. Since 2012, Hong Kong students have been able to apply to certain mainland universities using only their DSE score. Today, a total of 127 universities, half of which are key universities, accept Hong Kong students based solely on this score.

The second is to take part in the Joint Entrance Examinations for Students from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Overseas Chinese-Resident Areas and Countries through which Hong Kong students can apply to over 300 universities on China's mainland.

In addition, a number of top universities, including Peking University and Tsinghua University, offer conditional admission to students even prior to taking the DSE.

This year, about 14,000 students from Hong Kong applied to mainland universities through one of the three channels, the highest number on record to date. Among the total of 52,131 students that took part in the DSE, 4,783 applied to mainland universities. Last year, this number was 3,993.

TCM is one of the favored majors, especially after Hong Kong in 2018 released plans for the construction of its first TCM hospital which will start providing services in 2024. Other popular majors include finance, economics and law.

Guangdong Province has become the top choice for Hong Kong students due to its location. The dialect, climate and dietary habits of Guangdong are quite similar to those in Hong Kong.

A 23-year-old entrepreneur who would like to be called Baron is from Hong Kong. He was enrolled in Jinan University based in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, in 2016. After graduation, he moved to Shenzhen and started his own business.

"Studying at a mainland university can help forge deeper connections with the people there," he said in a clip on short-video platform Douyin. "If you want to run a startup in the Greater Bay Area, attending a mainland university can be a good starting point. In addition, students from Hong Kong can enjoy many preferential policies in terms of job hunting and launching their own businesses in the Greater Bay Area."

Making contact(s) 

Some traveled further north, with Shanghai and Beijing also among the top choices for Hong Kong students.

Ana Lo enrolled in Beijing-based Tsinghua University in 2016. "A majority of top students in Hong Kong are more likely to attend medical schools or business schools or law schools," she told CGTN. "But on the mainland, things are different because of the diversified options. My main interest lies in diplomacy, but there are no diplomacy-related majors in Hong Kong."

During her studies at Tsinghua, Lo was selected to do an internship with the National Development and Reform Commission and attended several United Nations meetings as a member of the Chinese delegation. "I think these are the opportunities that the Hong Kong SAR Government cannot provide," she said. "As Hong Kong is just a special administrative region, it does not have a UN delegation."

Lam Chi-kam, born in 1996, enrolled in Renmin University of China in 2014, majoring in international relations; and pursued his postgraduate studies at Peking University from 2018 onwards, majoring in government management. 

"My parents encouraged me to come to the mainland and build my connections here as the economic development across the mainland has progressed very fast," he explained.

He has visited quite a few places during his studies and was left very impressed by the mainland's political system. "For example, I have seen a consultative democracy at the grassroots on the mainland," he said. "But such advances have not been sufficiently highlighted in mainstream school textbooks—or by the media in Hong Kong. So students in Hong Kong know very little about it."

The quality of mainland education has vastly improved in recent years. In the newly released QS World University Rankings, an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds, four Chinese universities made into the top 50.

"Today, as many areas outside the Chinese mainland are still struggling with the pandemic, students on the mainland can enjoy a safe environment as the pandemic has been essentially controlled here," Li Xiaobing, an expert on Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan from Nankai University, told Global Times. "This has gained mainland universities additional bonus points."

(Printed Edition Title:  Up North)  

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon 

Comments to yuanyuan@bjreview.com 

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