An increasing number of Hong Kong's brightest students will be able to join Oxford University, following a successful fund-raising campaign.
'Thanks to the university's alumni and friends, the Hong Kong Oxford Scholarship Fund will now provide bursaries for several students this year compared with three beneficiaries last year,' said the English university's Vice-Chancellor, Dr Peter North. The bursary covers about one-third of the tuition fees, which run to GBP15,000 a year (HK$198,000).
But Dr North said beneficiaries of the fund usually found no difficulty in obtaining further finance elsewhere, because of Oxford's reputation.
Scholarships from various sources, including the British Government and Hong Kong foundations and organisations, are now supporting between 45 and 50 students from the territory during their time at Oxford.
Another 50 to 60 are self-financed.
Dr North said that Hong Kong's tertiary institutes had only limited capacity to absorb increasing numbers of school-leavers.