Eunice Lam
John Lee aims to build Hong Kong into an international education hub by establishing a university of applied sciences and creating a university town in the Northern Metropolis.
Government sources said a local self-financed private university will “rebrand” into a university of applied sciences next year, while the land in Northern Metropolis university town will be reserved for local tertiary institutions for development.
”We will strive to develop the Northern Metropolis University Town where post-secondary institutions are encouraged to strengthen cooperation with renowned mainland and overseas institutions and create synergy by sharing resources and enhancing collaboration with the industry sector,” Lee said.
When an institution turns into a university of applied sciences, its eligible programs will be given priority to be included in the Study Subsidy Scheme for Designated Professions/Sector that can be enrolled through JUPAS.
Lee announced doubling non-local admission quotas in public universities from 20 percent to 40 percent from the 2024/25 school year starting next September.
The quotas were calculated based on some 15,000 University Grants Committee-funded places for local undergraduates annually. However, the increase in non-local quotas will not affect the admission of locals, as non-locals enroll through non-JUPAS avenues.
A total of 14,147 non-local bachelor’s degree students were enrolled in the eight UGC-funded universities in the 2022/23 academic year, which accounted for 19.2 percent, where some 60 percent were mainlanders.
”The institutions may take into account their capacity to proceed, step by step, with the admission of more non-local students, especially students from Belt and Road Initiative countries and from the mainland, and stand to expand capacity and enhance standards through their high-quality teaching and supporting facilities,” he said.
To accommodate the housing demands amid an increasing number of non-local students, he said the eight public universities will be able to offer 13,500 more dormitory places by 2027 under the Hostel Development Fund.
Authorities plan to launch a new round of land grant and start-up loan schemes next year to support self-financing tertiary institutions.
The administration will inject HK$1 billion into the Government Scholarship Fund from next September, as recipients of Belt and Road Scholarships will increase from 100 to 150.
The quota of the PhD Fellowship Scheme will be increased by one-third, from 300 to 400 places each year.
In welcoming the policy address, the Chinese University of Hong Kong said “it will ensure teaching quality remains at the core of its plans to incrementally enroll more non-local students,” adding the campus is geared to accommodate more high-quality students.
Hang Seng University president Simon Ho Shun-man hopes the policies of raising non-local quotas, increasing dormitory supplies and scholarships could be extended to self-financing institutions as well.
Ho called on the administration to offer equal support to private institutes when promoting Northern Metropolis university town.
Meanwhile, starting next month, full-time non-local postgraduate students will temporarily be allowed to take up part-time jobs to enrich their experience of working in Hong Kong.
The arrangement will be implemented on a two year trial basis, during which more than 35,000 students are expected to benefit.
Additionally, the Vocational Training Council aims to establish the Hong Kong Institute of Information Technology, focusing on pre-employment and on-the-job training for the IT sector in the 2024/25 school year.
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