Macau is becoming a higher education destination for Chinese students

Just as casinos have proliferated across Macau in the past 15 years, so too have colleges. When the city returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1999, it was home to two universities and two tertiary institutions. Since then the total has more than doubled to 10. That's a lot of college places for a city of just 600,000 people. Perhaps not surprisingly, most of the slack is being taken up by students from mainland China.

While undergraduate applications from China fell at several Hong Kong universities last year, the reverse was true in the former Portuguese enclave. The Macau University of Science and Technology, for example, received about 7,000  applications from China last year - a 30 per cent increase from 2013. Now close to half of its 7,500 undergraduate students come from China.

Macau aims to develop higher education as a major pillar of its economy and is fast catching up with Hong Kong on that front, says university president Liu Liang.

Liu acknowledges that Macau UST has only 15 years of history compared to more than 100 for the University of Hong Kong. "But as a relatively new school, we don't have any baggage. We learn from all over the world, including Hong Kong, when developing [our] curriculum," he says. "The Macau government places increasing emphasis on higher education, so we are certain to pose positive competition to Hong Kong."

Although they may not place as highly as Hong Kong in international rankings such as those by QS and Times Higher Education, tertiary institutions in Macau appeal to Chinese students on other levels. Lower fees and cost of living are major considerations.

Huang Liming, a Zhuhai native studying at the Macau Institute for Tourism Studies, says high costs put her off applying to colleges in Hong Kong.

"My cousin, who is studying at the University of Hong Kong, told me lodging and living costs are very high there. He's on a scholarship so he doesn't need to worry about tuition fees. But my public exam results are not that good," the 20-year-old says.