Fewer Hong Kong students are expected to study in Britain

The number of Hongkongers studying in the United Kingdom is likely to fall for the first time in at least six years as local secondary schools produce fewer graduates.

In the 2013 to 2014 academic year, 14,725 Hong Kong students were registered in Britain's undergraduate and postgraduate programmes - an increase of 8 per cent from the previous year. This is typical of the trend for at least the past six years, according to the British Council Hong Kong.

The number of Hong Kong students who applied for undergraduate programmes in the UK for the year to September 2014 reached 7,195, an increase of 6 per cent year-on-year.

However, the upward trend could stop in the 2015-2016 academic year. As of last December, the number of applications for undergraduate study dropped by 6 per cent.

"This decrease is expected, due to the falling number of HKDSE [Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination] graduates from over 79,000 last year to 74,000 in the coming year," said Steve Corry, the council's regional business development manager of services for international education marketing.

The United Kingdom remains the top choice for Hong Kong students seeking higher education in English-speaking countries. For the academic year 2013 to 2014, Britain drew 46 per cent of overseas students, followed by 28 per cent to the United States, 18 per cent to Australia and 8 per cent to Canada.