Fewer Hong Kong students secure university spots and are offered their top three choices through the city’s admissions system. Photo: Daniel SuenFewer Hong Kong students have secured a university place in the city and received an offer from their top three choices through a central allocation system. An education consultant has attributed the decline to more applicants attaining the minimum entry requirements.
Among the 39,634 applicants who joined the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (Jupas), 15,776, or 39.8 per cent were offered a place, according to results announced on Wednesday.
This includes undergraduate courses offered by the eight public universities, self-financed bachelor programmes at Hong Kong Metropolitan University or a Higher Diploma programme at Education University of Hong Kong.
Last year 16,149 students, or 40.4 per cent of 39,948 Jupas applicants, were offered a place.
Among the successful applicants this year, 13,797 got a spot in their top three choices, 688 fewer than last year.
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Ng Po-shing, a consultant at student guidance centre Hok Yau Club, attributed the decrease to more students meeting the minimum requirement, including the higher success rate for a a core subject, citizenship and social development, in the university entrance exams, Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE).
“When more students attain the minimum requirement, it also means more people will compete for university places,” he said.
A total of 18,392 students secured the minimum entrance requirement this year, according to the examination authorities’ announcement last month, up from 16,914 last year.
That means around 2,600 students who attained the minimum requirement this year were unable to secure a place in the main round of Jupas.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) announced that five out of eight top scorers aspiring to be doctors in this year’s exam were admitted to its medical school.
“According to the information, nearly half of the top 100 students who sat for Diploma of Secondary Education [exams] picked CUHK’s medical programme,” the university’s medical school said in a press release.
The University of Hong Kong said it admitted four top scorers, without specifying what they would study.
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology announced its global business programme admitted just one top scorer.
The new core subject, citizenship and social development, replaced liberal studies in 2021, following accusations that the latter’s curriculum radicalised youngsters. The current syllabus focuses on national security, identity, lawfulness and patriotism.
The subject has only two grades - “attained” or “unattained” – unlike liberal studies, which had been marked on a seven-grade scale like other subjects in the DSE.
The university’s minimum entrance requirement requires scoring at least level 3 in both Chinese and English language subjects, level 2 in mathematics, an “attained” grade in the new core subject and level 2 in two electives.
According to examination authorities, 93.7 per cent candidates received the “attained” grade in the new subject, higher than the 89.6 per cent students attaining level 2 or above in liberal studies last year.