Universities in Hong Kong welcome more non-local students after city doubles intake limit

Baptist University says number of first-year, non-local students for 2024-25 to increase by nearly 200 per cent from last year

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Baptist University has recorded a significant increase in its intake for first-year, non- local students. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 8:30am, 1 Sep 2024Updated: 8:01pm, 1 Sep 2024

Hong Kong public universities have pressed ahead with efforts to admit more non-local students after authorities doubled their intake limits, with one institution saying the number of first-year undergraduates it has from outside the city has risen by nearly 200 per cent.

The University Grants Committee (UGC), which allocates funds to local tertiary education institutions, said efforts to admit more non-local students would be gradual and take into account each university’s capacity.

The organisation would also send a delegation to France in September to promote Hong Kong as a study destination, it said.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu last October announced that the city’s eight publicly funded universities would have their non-local student intake quotas, which are only applicable to taught programmes, increased from 20 per cent to 40 per cent of all available places from the 2024-25 academic year onwards.

The move increased the number of public university undergraduate spaces open to non-local students from 15,000 in 2023-2024 to around 30,000 for the new academic year.

The government also plans to increase the number of student accommodation spaces by 13,500 by 2027.