The Rhodes Scholarship is one of the world's most prestigious international study awards; recipients include former US president Bill Clinton, astronomer Edwin Hubble and Australian Nobel Laureate Howard Florey.
It isn't easy to win one: students must display leadership, integrity, community spirit and energy and be outstanding academics. In Hong Kong, Chinese University students have far outpaced their peers in the rigorous selection process, with 11 of the last 16 annual awards going to them - that's more than two thirds.
It's an enviable record, and one that has provoked envy - and questions. Academics at other universities ask whether the location of the Rhodes Trust secretariat for Hong Kong - within CUHK's office of admissions and financial aid - could have influenced the university's success in winning postgraduate scholarships to the University of Oxford.
Chinese University and the Rhodes Selection Committee in Hong Kong vigorously reject any suggestion of favouritism; CUHK students win more awards, they say, because more of them apply.
'People from other universities have complained,' said Grace Chow, director of admissions and financial aid at Chinese University, and also administrator of the Rhodes Scholarship. 'This is so unfair. We have been doing this on a voluntary basis. The other universities have representatives on the committee. They could also say: 'Mrs Chow, please give the secretariat back to us'.'
Chinese University has administered the scholarship since 1995. Previously, it was jointly run by CUHK and the University of Hong Kong, which hosted the secretariat in alternate years.