172% surge of dependant enrolments into Hong Kong universities in past 2 years
Influx of children of non-local professionals admitted by the eight public universities has prompted angry backlash from local parents
The number of children of non-local professionals enrolled into public universities almost trebled over the last two years, prompting education authorities to consider finding extra undergraduate places for them to avoid competition with Hong Kong students.
Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin said on Wednesday that the results of a review into the definition of local students – prompted by complaints from parents regarding an influx of dependants under the city’s talent schemes – would be announced before the next round of applications for publicly funded undergraduate programmes.
“The other thing is to find some places so that it does not affect the 15,000 opportunities for our local students. This is one of the plans we are studying,” she said, on the number of first-year first-degree places for Hongkongers every year.
Choi said in a Legislative Council meeting that around 132,000 children aged under 18 were permitted to come to Hong Kong as dependants under the various talent admission schemes from 2022 to 2025.
While immigration authorities did not provide a breakdown of ages, Choi revealed a significant increase in the number of dependants admitted to public universities through the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (Jupas).
“According to the Jupas office, the number of dependants admitted to University Grants Committee-funded first year first degree programmes through the Jupas route in the three years from the 2022-23 to 2024-25 academic years were 62, 68 and 185 respectively,” Choi said.