Record high acceptance rate for Hong Kong universities this year, but many students eyeing programmes overseas
- Data from the city’s joint university admissions body shows 38.1 per cent of applicants will be offered first-year bachelor’s programme places
- But one analyst says 10 to 20 per cent more students are seeking to study abroad this year, with some motivated by ‘political factors’
Official statistics released by the city’s joint university admissions body show that 38.1 per cent – or nearly 15,500 – of this year’s more than 40,600 applicants will be offered first-year bachelor’s programme places in publicly funded or self-financing local universities.
The acceptance data was released by the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (Jupas) just hours before students were set to learn their own placement results on Thursday morning.
Ng Po-shing, a consultant at student guidance centre Hok Yau Club, said the latest record was unsurprising given recent trends.
“With a falling number of student applicants and a somewhat similar number of places offered by local universities, the [success rate] will naturally be higher,” Ng said.
Indeed, the number of high school graduates taking the DSE exams has steadily declined over the past several years, a phenomenon mainly attributed to a declining birth rate. This year 43,294 candidates sat for the assessments, almost 2,000 pupils fewer than the year before.
According to the Jupas data, of the 15,492 pupils offered undergraduate spots this year, 14,010 got into at least one of their top three choices, 225 more than last year.