Hong Kong-listed Edvantage presses ahead with university expansion in Greater Bay Area amid regulatory storm

Hong Kong-listed Edvantage to expand Zhaoqing and Jiangmen campuses to capitalise on transport network, state support and cheap land

Some 700,000 students from Guangdong take China’s university entrance exam each year, more than triple the available spots in public colleges

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The Zhaoqing campus of Edvantage Group, where it offers courses in finance and hospitality. Photo: Handout

Published: 8:30am, 2 Aug 2021Updated: 11:00pm, 2 Aug 2021

A Hong Kong-listed private education company with operations in the Greater Bay Area is expanding its colleges in mainland China as it takes advantage of the transport network, state support and cheap land amid a regulatory storm in the industry.

Edvantage Group Holdings is expanding its Zhaoqing campus in Sihui, which it opened last September, and also the vocational college in Jiangmen’s Xinhui district that will start receiving students next month, company executives said. The two campuses and those in Guangzhou have a total capacity to enrol about 70,000 students.

“A key advantage of Zhaoqing and Jiangmen is that they have ample land and a young population, which is ideal for privately-run university businesses,” said Liu Yi-man, chief executive of Edvantage Group.

Chief financial officer Simon Wong Shing-mun concurred, saying expanding the Zhaoqing and Jiangmen campuses made sense as their land and construction costs were cheaper than other more developed cities such as Shenzhen.

Edvantage Group CFO Wong Shing-mun (left) and CEO Liu Yi-man. Photo: Dickson Lee

“The development of high-speed trains and highways has shortened the travel time to within an hour between the 11 cities in the Greater Bay Area, making it easier for students from other cities in Guangdong to go to Zhaoqing and Jiangmen to study,” Wong said.