The university tested the approach last year when it advertised its open day to Shenzhen students. More than 300 visitors, including then Shenzhen mayor Li Hongzhong, descended on the campus.

The event featured guided tours every hour from 10am to 5pm, when student helpers, originally from the mainland, showed visitors around the campus, including the residential halls.

Li Xiaofan, a student at Shenzhen Experiment Middle School, said she would apply to HKUST. Many things at the university impressed her, including the rows of foreign-language magazines in the library that would not be available in a mainland university.

'I like this university and I hope I can study biology here,' said the 15-year-old. 'We've already had a virtual tour from the university's website, but she insisted on coming for a look,' Xiaofan's mother added.

HKUST has been recruiting mainland secondary school graduates since 1998, with numbers rising steadily from 19 to 167 last year. The past recruits, according Pong Ting-Chuen, director of the Mainland Students and Programmes Office, were all top performers, and had a 'positive influence' on local students.

'Mainland students have a reputation for being hard-working,' said Professor Pong. 'They concentrate more on their studies, and their ability to adjust to a new environment is excellent.'

However, competition is stiff. With an admission success rate of 15 per cent, HKUST is raising the standard even higher this year, stressing eligible application scores in the mainland's College Entrance Examination be 10 per cent higher than that of key mainland universities.

This year, undergraduate admission to eight Hong Kong universities is spreading to 17 provinces and municipalities. University staffs are now conducting recruitment talks in various cities.

'We both graduated from mainland universities and I really want a change for my daughter,' said Mr Li, Xiaofan's father.

'She will receive quality world-level education while remaining near home.'