HKU tops selection for early admissions
More than half of the top students who were offered early admission to university this year have opted for the University of Hong Kong.
Some 423 students who passed the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination with flying colours last year and chose to skip A-levels have been offered university places this September through the Early Admissions Scheme, Jupas said.
HKU scooped up more than half of the cream of the crop, with 226 top students scoring an average of eight As in last year's HKCEE applying for admission to the university.
Medicine was the most popular subject for the 11 straight-A students who chose HKU, with six of them enrolling in the major.
Other popular choices were actuarial science and the double degree in law and business management, both of which were picked by two straight-A students.
Chinese University got 173 students, which accounted for 41 per cent of all scheme applicants. Six of the top students were straight-A scorers who snatched 10 As.
Amidst the financial meltdown, business-related programmes at Chinese University have proved popular with the top students. Subjects such as insurance, financial and actuarial analysis, and risk management have reported a 48 per cent rise in first-choice applications compared with last year.
The university's physics department admitted 10 top students this year - double last year's figure. The department also admitted 13-year-old Kenneth Kan Man-fung through the non-Jupas scheme. The youngest-ever candidate when he took the HKCEE last year, he scored one A, five Bs and a level 5* in English. He is the youngest student ever admitted by the university.
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology admitted 24 top students this year, of whom nine chose to major in the dual degree programme in technology and management. Global business management admitted eight students.
Introduced in 2002, the scheme allows Form Six students who score six As or above to apply for early admission into HKU, Chinese University or the University of Science and Technology.
