Hong Kong tutorial firms feel squeeze as 2 mainland Chinese giants eye slice of pie
Local tutorial chains are also extending operations across border as interest in taking Hong Kong’s DSE rises among mainland students
Two major mainland Chinese tutorial school operators are expanding their Hong Kong footprint, increasing the competition for local counterparts already facing challenges caused by a shrinking student population and a curriculum revamp, the Post has found.
The moves by the firms come amid rising demand from mainland students to sit Hong Kong’s university entrance exams, with the surge in interest also prompting local tutorial chains to extend their operations across the border.
The number of centres run by the three major local operators in the city nearly halved from 102 in 2016 to 56 at present, but the entrance of the mainland operators has heated up competition.
New Oriental, the largest tutoring group on the mainland, opened its first campus in Mong Kok in July this year under a subsidiary, New Oriental International Education. The group had 1,025 branches on the mainland as of May 31, 2024.
The company’s Hong Kong-based overseas education consulting firm provides school placement and transfer services for new mainland arrivals at a cost of up to HK$45,800 (US$5,870), according to a New Oriental salesman.
Its Mong Kok centre also offers tutoring courses for the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE), the city’s university entrance exams, charging HK$4,800 for a 16-hour package for English language in-person group classes and HK$850 for a one-on-one online class.