Pupils sent overseas to avoid HK A-levels

The daughter of businesswoman Winnie Tsoi is studying in the economics and finance programme at the University of Hong Kong. The price she paid to get a quality degree education for her eldest daughter was HK$900,000.

The world-renowned HKU has not become a mercenary diploma mill selling degrees to the rich - it was more a case of Tsoi sending her daughter overseas on a pricey education detour to skip the gruelling local A-levels exams, but still secure the required grades.

The HK$900,000 became the 'entrance ticket' to the hotly contested programme at HKU. A student seeking admission had to score a minimum of two Bs and credits for two languages in the local A-levels last year. With a less-than-brilliant score of 21 (out of 30) in the Form Five public exam in 2007, Tsoi figured that the odds of her daughter passing the Hong Kong A-levels with flying colours and gaining entry to the HKU degree course would be very low.

So she enrolled her daughter in the private Woldingham School in Surrey, England, for matriculation. Her daughter sat the British A-levels last year, scored four As and came back to Hong Kong to apply for the university programme as an overseas Hongkonger.

Tsoi is one of a rising number of middle-class parents sending their offspring overseas to avoid the local A-levels, raising the odds of their children entering their dream programmes. There is a growing trend of top programmes reserving a bigger quota for overseas Hongkongers.

The much more stringent academic standards required for Hong Kong A-levels has prompted many wealthy parents to send their children overseas for a better exam report card - helping entrance to top local degree programmes.