Hong Kong’s public universities record the highest number of dropouts since 2004
- More than 2,100 students at the city’s eight publicly funded universities quit in the 2019-20 academic year, up 15 per cent from 2018-19
- Most universities cited personal and family issues as the main reasons behind the withdrawals, but student leaders said politics also played a part
New figures released by the University Grants Committee, the main funding body for the city’s public institutions of higher learning, also showed that some schools were hit harder than others, with one experiencing a 40 per cent increase in dropouts in 2019-20 compared to the previous academic year.
The dismal figures came hot on the heels of previous surveys showing dozens of primary and secondary schools similarly reporting more students dropping out over the past year, including at traditionally elite institutions, with many of the youths leaving Hong Kong altogether.
“The number of [university] students withdrawing has obviously seen an increase … We also hope to know the exact reasons, but it is not easy,” said Professor Lau Chi-pang, Lingnan University’s associate vice-president of academic affairs and external relations.
In the 2019-20 academic year, a total of about 2,120 undergraduate and postgraduate students withdrew from the city’s eight publicly-funded universities, up 15 per cent from 1,848 in 2018-19, according to statistics from the grants committee.
City University and Education University were the only public funded institutions that did not see an uptick in dropouts. PolyU, meanwhile, had the most, with 505 students dropping out, about 40 per cent more than the 359 who quit the previous year.