Hong Kong universities urged to look beyond mainland to boost paltry foreign student numbers
Official auditor finds that 76 per cent of non-local students in the city come from mainland China and also expresses concern over meeting expenses claimed
Hong Kong’s publicly-funded universities need to be more international as 76 per cent of non-local students enrolled in the eight institutions in the last academic year were from the mainland, the city’s official auditor said on Wednesday.
In its latest report, the Audit Commission also raised concerns about expenses claimed by the government’s university affairs adviser, the University Grants Committee (UGC). Spending on inviting academics from overseas grew fourfold from HK$3.9 million in 2005-06 to HK$16.2 million last year.
“Internationalisation is not the same thing as encouraging mainland students to study in Hong Kong,” the audit report cited the UGC as saying in a 2010 higher education review.
“The [UGC] should further encourage universities to ... attract more non-local students, in particular those other than mainland students.”
The auditor found only 3.9 per cent of enrolled students at the eight local public universities were non-local but not from the mainland in the 2015-16 academic year.
