Fight for Hong Kong’s university spots to heat up as 150,000 more teens eligible
Hong Kong’s ‘predicament’ is reminder of the ‘unplanned consequences’ of official policies, ex-leader CY Leung says
Competition for university places is set to intensify in Hong Kong as more than 150,000 children born in the city to mainland Chinese parents will be eligible to apply for subsidised tertiary education in the next five years.
But the “predicament” served as a reminder over the current talent admission policies, which bore similar “unplanned consequences”, he said.
Hong Kong experienced a “baby boom” from 2006 to 2012, helped partly by children who were born to mainland parents in the city after a landmark court ruling in 2001 declared that newborns should be given the right of abode regardless of their parents’ immigration status. Most of the children went to the mainland for their foundation education.
After the government banned mainland women from giving birth in the city in 2013, the number of newborns dropped drastically to 790.