Lawmakers from across the political spectrum pushed through a motion in the Legislative Council this week calling on the government to raise the cap on the number of publicly funded undergraduate places for students.
The motion, which also urges the administration to encourage the creation of more private university places, was amended to include demands for more hostel places, student financial assistance and other measures.
Starry Lee Wai-king of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, who tabled the motion, said Singapore had surged ahead of Hong Kong in a recent World Economic Forum report on global competitiveness, which highlighted higher education as a key weakness for the city.
The limit on the number of publicly funded university places had been fixed at 14,500 since 1994 and was causing an admissions bottleneck. That would worsen when four-year degrees were introduced in 2012.
'Some 82,000 Form Three students will proceed to study for a public exam in four years' time and, if the number remains unchanged at 14,500, only one out of six will enter university,' Ms Lee said.
'To address this bottleneck, we should increase the number of sub-degree articulation places and we should promote the development of private universities.'