Opportunities for young Hongkongers to work and study in the GBA have grown steadily in recent years, with Beijing relaxing policies to allow Hong Kong students graduating from mainland-based universities to stay on and find jobs there.

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The Hong Kong government has also provided generous funds to encourage young people to start business ventures in the GBA, on top of subsidising thousands of internships each year at firms across the border.

But Hong Kong’s youth have been cool to these breaks, with surveys showing very few are keen to explore work opportunities in the GBA. Some say they are put off by the lower average salary there, or concerns about their freedom and the different legal system on the mainland.

‘Let students see the world’

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Ng completed her degree in Global China Studies at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) before moving on to her master’s in digital media and arts there in September of last year.

The university, which has about 600 faculty and 16,000 students at its Clear Water Bay campus, is building a second campus in Guangzhou, in the GBA.

Ng is among 106 master’s and doctoral students in a pilot scheme linked to the university’s expansion to the GBA. About 90 per cent of those enrolled are from the mainland. Hongkongers like Ng make up 5 per cent, and the rest are from overseas.

Students will be enrolled in new programmes on the Guangzhou campus, different from those on the Hong Kong campus. Doctoral students whose programmes take four years will move to the Guangzhou campus when it opens in 2022.

At least three other Hong Kong universities are expanding in the GBA – City University in Dongguan, Polytechnic University in Foshan, and the Open University in Zhaoqing.

Their expansion might prove to be yet another way to draw young Hongkongers to the mainland.

HKUST expects its Guangzhou campus to start operating from 2022, and to have 400 faculty and 4,000 postgraduate students within the first six years. It has a target of 4,000 undergraduate and 6,000 postgraduate students by 2032.

Provost Lionel Ni Ming-shuan said that aside from attracting mainlanders, the Guangzhou campus hoped to attract Hong Kong students too, although he did not provide a number.

“We want to give students from Hong Kong more choices. Hong Kong is small, and we’ll be giving them options to study in the GBA that is close to home, rather than going far away,” he told the Post.

The faster economic growth in the GBA also promised there would be more jobs for the taking there, he added.

HKUST’s two campuses will work closely, including allowing students enrolled in one to take some courses in the other. Those who graduate from the Guangzhou campus are expected to receive two certificates, one from each campus.

In February last year, Beijing rolled out its Outline Development Plan for the GBA, which confirmed Hong Kong’s strategic position in the area. It also encouraged higher education institutions from Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Macau to work together, operating institutions or developing programmes jointly.

The first phase of City University’s Dongguan campus is expected to be completed by 2023. It is expected to enrol about 6,000 students, including 2,400 undergraduates and 3,600 postgraduates.

Open University’s campus in Zhaoqing does not have a launch date yet, but it is expected to have about 4,000 students in the first four years, with that figure rising eventually to 10,000.

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Chinese University opened its Shenzhen campus in 2014. It had about 3,400 undergraduate and postgraduate students, according to figures for 2017/2018, and aims to eventually have a total of about 11,000.

For universities running out of space in Hong Kong, the GBA allows them to expand and take advantage of resources and support offered by mainland provincial governments.

Critics of these developments, however, have asked whether Hong Kong universities might end up hurt by worsening relations between the US and China.

HKUST’s Ni said he felt it was too early to tell, and pointed out that American universities also had interests on the mainland, including Duke Kunshan University, a partnership between Duke University in the US and China’s Wuhan University. New York University also has a campus in Shanghai.

“They are still there, their faculty from the US still go to teach there, they have not pulled out,” he said.

To those who say Hong Kong’s current political situation may discourage young people from going to the GBA to study or work, he said there were political influences in many other places around the world.

With Hong Kong’s universities able to take in only about 30 per cent of high school leavers in recent years, he pointed out that the GBA would offer more young Hongkongers a chance to not only pursue a degree but also broaden their outlook.

“Let students see the world, and then they can decide what is the best for themselves,” he said.

Work in the GBA? Sorry, not interested

When it comes to considering a move to the GBA, older Hongkongers have proven more inclined than the young, drawn by the lower cost of living and cheaper homes. Many of the estimated 500,000 Hongkongers living in the GBA are retirees. 

There are jobs aplenty in the GBA, but most young Hongkongers prefer to stay put.

MWYO, a think tank set up by tycoon and Youth Development Commission vice-chairman Lau Ming-wai, conducted a survey with Chinese University from August to October last year, to find out what young people think of working in the GBA, including their concerns.

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Of the 1,001 respondents aged between 18 and 34, an overwhelming 81 per cent expressed no interest in working in the GBA. Their concerns included the lower pay there, as well as mainland restrictions on freedoms and the different legal system.

The average annual salary for most jobs in the GBA was less than 60 per cent of that in Hong Kong, the think tank said. Only a handful of higher-level jobs in industries such as IT came close to or paid more than those in Hong Kong.

The cost of living and property prices, however, are considerably lower in the GBA compared to Hong Kong.

Still, in the short term, the think tank said it would remain difficult to get young people interested in moving to the GBA.

There has been some headway, though, including through an internship programme under the Home Affairs Bureau that has cost the government a total of over HK$500 million (US$64.5 million). The scheme sends young people on internships in the mainland, with many of the opportunities located in the GBA.

It began in 2014/2015 with 1,500 young people who took up internships in 38 programmes.

The number of programmes and participants has increased over the years. There were 3,700 takers for 149 programmes in 2019/20, and an anticipated 3,800 participants for 157 programmes in 2020/2021.

The internships typically last between 21 and 56 days, and involve businesses in the GBA, as well as in cities such as Shanghai and Hangzhou. The interns gain experience in various areas, including human resources, administration and cultural promotion.

Although thousands have gone, the uptake rate could be stronger, as there were more places available than participants in five of the six years the programme has been running.

Because of Covid-19, the internship programmes on the mainland have been called off since January of this year.

Simon Li Chung-hing, founder of a job recruitment portal that focuses on the GBA, said that positions attractive to Hongkongers were available there, including in IT and technology. Roles in the education sector, such as kindergarten teachers, were also sought after, he said.

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While many young Hongkongers might thumb their noses at jobs in the GBA, employers there also had their concerns about applicants from the city, Li said.

His platform, which targets jobseekers under 30, has come across some employers asking more questions about applicants since last year’s anti-government protests in Hong Kong.

“They ask us to check local applicants’ social media accounts and do more background checks to avoid hiring those who might be more radical,” he said.

He remained optimistic, however, that more young Hongkongers would make their way to the GBA as more jobs became available and more support came from the Hong Kong and mainland governments.

Among the steps taken by Beijing to entice people from Hong Kong to move to the GBA was the removal of a requirement for Hongkongers to apply for employment permits to work on the mainland. Eligible Hong Kong residents can also sit the qualification accreditation exams to be primary and secondary schoolteachers.

“In terms of the salary disparity, for example, maybe in 10 years’ time, other mainland industries aside from IT will also catch up with the pay for the same positions in Hong Kong,” he said.

Or there might be more young people like HKUST student Ng, determined to move to the GBA and driven by wanting to explore opportunities beyond the city she grew up in.

“Hong Kong’s existence is closely connected to other places globally; we need to know about the places around us,” she said.