Sorry, PhD not welcome: Hong Kong wants bachelor’s degree holders from 100 top universities, but 8 are postgraduate schools

Hong Kong’s flagship talent scheme offers a two-year visa to successful applicants with a bachelor’s degree from the world’s top 100 universities, but eight schools on the list do not offer such qualifications, the Post has found. That means applicants with a master’s degree or doctorate from those universities would not be eligible for the Top Talent Pass Scheme, according to its requirements. Innovation and technology sector lawmaker Duncan Chiu said the government should include higher degrees from these universities to attract more applicants. “If the authorities recognise the qualifications of these 100 universities, all graduates should be welcome, no matter if they have a bachelor’s or master’s degree. When it comes to luring talent, a more advanced qualification seems even more desirable,” he said. The list was compiled by the Labour and Welfare Bureau based on world rankings, and it said there were no plans to make any changes. A bureau spokesman said: “No applications will be approved if the subject university has never granted such a degree. The Immigration Department has been assessing the top talent pass scheme applications in accordance with the stipulated eligibility criteria.” According to the Immigration Department, only applicants with a bachelor’s degree from the listed universities qualified. Those without a bachelor’s degree but with a master’s degree or doctorate were not eligible. Most of the schools with no bachelor’s programmes are medical or nursing training and research centres offering only higher degrees. Hong Kong accepts 5,800 for talent scheme, but lawmaker says focus on number who stay They are: Ecole Normale Superieure in France; the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel; the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK; and the University of California San Francisco, Rockefeller University in New York, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in Rochester, all in the United States. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu launched the talent scheme two months ago, after revealing that 140,000 people had left Hong Kong in the past two years, a brain drain resulting mainly from new migration pathways offered by Britain, Canada and Australia. Under the scheme, those who earned more than HK$2.5 million (US$318,470) over the past 12 months and graduates of the world’s top 100 universities who had worked for three of the past five years were eligible to apply. Graduates of those universities from the past five years who did not meet the working experience requirement could also apply, but capped at 10,000 visas annually. Simon Lee Siu-po, an honorary fellow at Chinese University’s Asia-Pacific Institute of Business, said the Labour and Welfare Bureau might not have noticed that some schools only offered postgraduate education, but it was right to seek graduates with a bachelor’s degree. “Fighting for a spot for bachelor’s programmes at top universities is a very competitive process. Students who get enrolled are usually more outstanding than other applicants,” he said. Hong Kong talent scheme receives 10,810 applications, half are top graduates Lee said master’s programmes were more like a business, offering those with bachelor’s degrees from less well-known universities or even diploma mills an opportunity to improve their resumes provided they could afford the tuition fees. As of last Monday, about 7,689 out of 10,810 applications had been approved, with half of the applicants being recent graduates of top international universities with at least three years’ working experience. Those earning HK$2.5 million or more in annual income made up about a sixth of applicants. About two-thirds of all applicants were from mainland China. Lawmaker Chiu said he did not believe the authorities had accidentally included schools with no bachelor’s programmes as they had relied on world university rankings. But he was concerned that only nine mainland Chinese universities were on the list as that might exclude many middle and high-level technical personnel from the Greater Bay Area, which links Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong province. “I’m going to follow up with the government about the scheme accepting only bachelor’s degree holders and how to attract more talent from the Greater Bay Area,” he said. Lawmaker Johnny Ng Kit-chong, an entrepreneur, said what mattered in the end was the number of applicants who stayed in Hong Kong, as that would tell if the talent scheme worked. “The authorities need to take more time to observe the number of applicants who really stay here in Hong Kong,” he said. One successful applicant told the Post he was having second thoughts about moving to Hong Kong. Mainland-born Keith Peng, 35, a manager of a Singaporean multinational technology company specialising in e-commerce, applied based on his annual income and was approved in late January. He worked in Shenzhen for 10 years before moving to Singapore, where he has been for four years and has become a permanent resident. He said he could not find a job in Hong Kong despite trying for a month. “Jobs in the financial industry seem promising, but not in e-commerce,” he said, adding that the pay package was a prime consideration. He said incomes in Shenzhen and Singapore were similar, and both paid better than Hong Kong. “But the living cost in Hong Kong is the highest among them,” he said. “Sometimes, you need to be realistic and do the maths.”

Sorry, PhD not welcome: Hong Kong wants bachelor’s degree holders from 100 top universities, but 8 are postgraduate schools

Applicants without a bachelor’s degree from listed schools will not be considered for talent scheme Eight schools in global top 100 focus mainly on higher-level medical and nursing training, research

Applicants without a bachelor’s degree from listed schools will not be considered for talent scheme

Eight schools in global top 100 focus mainly on higher-level medical and nursing training, research