When the University of British Columbia (UBC) was looking for the best location to open an office in Asia-Pacific in 2005, Hong Kong was not exactly a difficult choice.
On the doorstep of China, and with a long history of cultural and educational exchanges that wasn't so much a two-way street as a super highway, Hong Kong was precisely the shop window the century-old university was looking for.
Split between campuses in the cities of Vancouver and Kelowna, and with some 4,000 staff overseeing 54,000 students, UBC has won itself a reputation as one of the best research and teaching institutions on the continent.
Hong Kong students are attracted as much by the breadth and depth of the programmes on offer, as by the fee structure, which is considered extremely reasonable.
International students at UBC generally pay slightly more than C$20,000 (HK$151,000) a year in undergraduate tuition fees, while graduate students face an annual bill of around C$10,000.
Canadian students pay far less, which makes the country's higher education institutions even more attractive to Canadian passport holders.