Top graduate wins ticket to Oxford dreams with Rhodes scholarship

A psychology graduate from Chinese University has scooped the prestigious HK$1 million Hong Kong Rhodes Scholarship in the face of competition from 40 outstanding students.

The award will enable Siron Ng Siu-lun, who graduated last month with first class honours, to realise his ambition to take two master's degrees at the University of Oxford within two years.

Mr Ng, 22, will head to the dreaming spires in October to start the first programme - a one-year research MSc in management - and plans to go straight to an MSc in finance and economics next year.

Mr Ng is the first recipient of the Early Admissions Scheme to win a Rhodes scholarship, and the eighth graduate of Chinese University to secure the award in the past 10 years. The scheme enables bright Form Six students to skip A-levels and enter university a year early.

'I am very proud to get this scholarship,' he said. 'It would be very tough in terms of the financial burden on my family to take these two programmes without having the Rhodes scholarship.'

Mr Ng said the Early Admissions Scheme was key to him winning the scholarship because it had given him an additional year of university experience.

'I also have the feeling that it is something to do with the atmosphere and environment at CUHK. It is a very academic campus and has an informal collegial atmosphere that has nurtured a research mindset in me.'