The story appears on

Page A8

June 24, 2015

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

HomeNation

Mainland kids lose interest in HK unis

FEWER school leavers from the Chinese mainland are applying for places at Hong Kong universities.

According to Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the number of people who applied for places on its 2015-16 curriculum fell 34 percent from last year to 2,300.

At Lingnan University, the number dropped 40 percent to 556, while at Hong Kong Baptist University, applications dipped 40 percent to 2,319.

According to Wong Chung Leung, principal of Heung To Middle School, the decline is due to the recent anti-parallel trading and last year鈥檚 Occupy Central movement, which made people 鈥渢hink they are unwelcome.鈥

Also, it is now easier for mainland students to go to overseas universities, so Hong Kong is no longer the 鈥渟pringboard鈥 it once was, he said.

A spokesperson for the Baptist University agreed, saying it was 鈥渘ot strange鈥 that the number of mainland students applying for Hong Kong universities had fallen as there are now more opportunities for people to study abroad.

But the college remains confident of recruiting top mainland students due to the fierce competition for places elsewhere, the person said.

Cheung Man-ping, chairman of the Hong Kong Education Policy Concern Organization, said some mainland students and their parents 鈥渨orry about the security here鈥 and of 鈥渂eing sidelined because of the negative effects of Occupy Central and the lack of hospitality felt by mainland tourists.鈥


 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend