Top British universities set diploma entry terms

Admissions requirements for the first six universities in Britain to recognise the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education were announced yesterday by the British Council.

The University of Oxford will require students to have Level 5 in three subjects - but will only accept electives and not the core subjects of Chinese, English and liberal studies.

For courses that require maths, which is also a core subject, Oxford will require students to attain Level 5* in the core maths paper and Level 5 in an optional extended maths paper.

Under the new school-leaving diploma, students have to take the four core subjects plus two or three electives, which can include applied learning subjects. Each subject is graded from Levels 1 to Level 5, with the highest score being Level 5**.

Three other universities in Britain's Russell Group of leading research universities - Manchester, Warwick and King's College London - have set similar requirements for three Level Five subjects, with Warwick also requiring three high scores in electives.

Katherine Forestier, director of education and science services at the British Council Hong Kong, said Oxford maintained that Chinese was not relevant to study in Britain and was treating liberal studies as equivalent to a general studies programme.

'They are thinking: 'It's nice to have but it's not included in admission requirements',' she said.