The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is recruiting 20 self-paying students from Shanghai, Beijing and Guangdong during the summer in a one-year pilot scheme. Chinese University (CUHK) is also aiming to take in 30 mainland students who will have to pay for themselves for the first time.
Mainland students studying in Hong Kong have so far come on the Jockey Club Scholarship Scheme introduced in 1998. An agreement was struck last year between local and mainland educational authorities to let others come on a self-financing basis.
The Chinese Ministry of Education has recently decided on visa application procedures and to restrict recruitment to Beijing, Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong.
Polytechnic University is working on a plan for student recruitment in the mainland.
Before the agreement was reached, the University of Science and Technology (HKUST) broke new ground by recruiting students from Shenzhen in 2000. It has already recruited 26 from the special economic zone this year, up from last year's 21.
HKUST might increase the number of mainland students to up to three per cent of its first- year intake, director of its planning and co-ordination office, Dr Louis Shen Ning-yao, said.