Little support and cultural gap deter postgraduates from living and working in the city
Hong Kong has difficulty retaining talented mainlanders who study in the city because universities and the government provide little information or support to help them remain in the city to work, a mainland graduates' group warned yesterday.
The Hong Kong Association of Mainland Graduates - established in December in response to the surging number of mainland students - found that only about 20 per cent of those who wanted to stay in Hong Kong to work were able to do so.
And some that did stay were not happy with the outcome.
An association survey of 186 mainland graduates in Hong Kong in the first six months of the year found that 90 per cent wanted to stay in the city to work. However, Immigration Department statistics show that only 236, or 18 per cent, of the 1,322 mainland graduates last year actually did so.
Association president Geng Chunya blamed the situation on a lack of guidance and information offered to the mainlanders.
'There is not enough information given to the students before they come to the city,' he said. 'And there is not enough information on what they can do after they come.'
