Hong Kong tightens student fee rules for children of non-local talent

Children of non-local talent will be required to stay in Hong Kong for at least two years to become eligible for resident student benefits at publicly funded tertiary education institutions from the 2028-29 academic year, as part of efforts to prevent abuse.

Authorities said on Thursday that eligibility would be tightened over a transition period, with a one-year residency requirement introduced for 2027-28 applications, before the threshold rose to two years for 2028-29, to give people a reasonable amount of time to make plans.

Currently, students who receive dependant visas or entry permits when they are aged under 18 are considered local and can apply for government-funded programmes, paying the local tuition fee of HK$44,500 (US$5,668) in the coming academic year. Non-local students must pay three times that amount.

Some non-local families arrange for their children living in mainland China to take the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE), the city’s university entrance exams, and have been labelled “examination immigrants”.

As of May, about 142,000 children were approved for entry as dependants under various talent admission schemes.

In a briefing on Thursday, the Education Bureau said eligibility criteria were being tightened to address concerns that opportunities for local students to gain admission to universities were being affected by those who had not lived in Hong Kong.