No Hong Kong student visas for mainland Chinese pupils ‘under mutual agreement’

Hong Kong and mainland Chinese authorities have a consensus that the city will not issue student visas to pupils across the border, the education minister has revealed, explaining that they are excluded from a scheme to increase the non-local intake at semi-private schools.

Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin also said on Friday that aided and government schools were excluded from the scheme because most of them offered the local curriculum and used Chinese as the medium of instruction.

But she said the government would review whether public schools could also admit overseas students after looking into the trial scheme.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced in his policy address on Wednesday that the Education Bureau would launch a trial programme to allow schools under the Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) to seek to increase the number and size of classes, expanding their intake of non-local pupils on student visas studying in a self-financing mode.

But the scheme does not cover mainland pupils as student visas are currently not issued to them under local immigration policies.

Choi revealed that Hong Kong and mainland authorities had a mutual understanding that the city would not issue student visas to those aged under 18.

“Because we have the mutual understanding or consensus with mainland counterparts that we won’t issue at this stage the student visa for minors, there are no non-local students from the mainland under the age of 18,” she said.