University students face overcrowding at the start of the academic year in September, as an unprecedented 30,000 school pupils prepare to begin undergraduate studies.
Education reforms under which secondary school pupils enter university a year earlier and standard university courses last four rather than three years mean there will be a bulge in numbers. That's because the last batch of pupils under the old system, who will have spent seven years in secondary school, will enter university at the same time.
Institutions are in talks with secondary schools to make emergency use of their classrooms; the University of Hong Kong is installing food-vending machines to alleviate pressure on its cafeteria.
'People have to prepare for the fact that there will be some difficult situations,' Edward Cheng Wai-sun, the University Grants Committee (UGC) chairman, said yesterday, in his first media briefing since taking up the position a few months ago.
He said that although most preparations were complete, there would inevitably be problems.
More than 70,000 Form Six pupils taking the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education will vie for 15,000 university places in September. And 40,000 in Form Seven sitting for A-Levels will compete for another 15,000 places.
As a result, the number of students studying at the city's eight universities is expected to increase by a third.