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South China Morning Post
07-04-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
DSE: 61% of eligible candidates get into Hong Kong public universities, down from 70%
Government statistics show that the success rate of eligible candidates who sat for Hong Kong's university entrance exam has fallen from 70 per cent in 2023 to 61 per cent. This number is despite changing the liberal studies core subject, which allowed more students to meet the minimum entrance requirements for the city's publicly funded universities. According to figures recently submitted by the Education Bureau to the Legislative Council, 19,262 candidates who took the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) last year met the minimum requirement to get into the eight local universities. But only 61 per cent – or 11,837 candidates – received offers from varsities via the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (Jupas), a centralised system for those hoping to pursue full-time undergraduate programmes. The success rate for those eligible students dropped by 9 percentage points compared with 2023 – when 70 per cent of DSE candidates were offered places in the city's government-funded universities. 75% of non-local students at Hong Kong universities are from mainland China About 50,000 candidates sat the DSE in both 2023 and 2024. Last year, 1,356 more students met the minimum entrance requirement than during the previous year. There was a drop in the number of places available at the eight universities through Jupas, from 12,592 in 2023 to 11,837 last year. Liberal studies became one of four core subjects of the senior secondary school curriculum in 2009. It was replaced by citizenship and social development in 2021 – two years after the 2019 anti-government protests – following accusations that the curriculum was radicalising youngsters. Last year's DSE exams saw the first batch of students taking the new core subject, which only has two classifications in terms of grades – either 'attained' or 'unattained'. The new syllabus focuses on national security, identity, lawfulness and patriotism. Under the revamp, schools allocated more lessons for other core subjects, and students chose an additional elective. Non-Chinese students photographed after receiving high marks in the 2024 Diploma of Secondary Education exams. Photo: Sun Yeung Last year, the new core subject had a high attainment rate of 93.7 per cent among all candidates, a requirement by all public universities. In contrast, only 89.6 per cent achieved level 2 in the previous liberal studies subject, a minimum requirement to get into universities under the exam's seven-level grading scale. Ng Po-shing, a student guidance consultant of Hok Yau Club, said the new subject was generally considered easier than liberal studies. He said the lower success rate for eligible students to enter universities was mainly due to the scrapping of liberal studies, which freed up time for students to study other core subjects such as Chinese, English and mathematics. Ng said statistics from authorities showed more students achieved level 3 or above in Chinese and English, and level 2 or above in mathematics, which are requirements by the eight universities, resulting in more students becoming eligible to compete for places. 'It means students have to get better grades than before to secure places in the universities that they wanted, as more students now attained the benchmark,' he said. 'Only getting the minimum requirement did not help students to enter university [amid greater competition].' DSE 2025: English reading and writing exam surprised students with celebrity topic Ng added that universities would be 'definitely happier' as the academic performance of those seeking admission was better than before. Meanwhile, 146 non-Chinese students were admitted to the eight publicly funded universities via Jupas in the 2023-24 school year, a slight decrease from 149 the previous year. Starting from the 2024-25 academic year, the enrolment ceiling of non-local students at the eight universities for undergraduate programmes doubles, equivalent to 40 per cent of the number of places for local students. Under the new policy, the universities received roughly 82,000 applications for the current school year, a 15 per cent jump from the last one. Only 7 per cent of applicants were admitted. Of all applicants, 85 per cent were from mainland China, 12 per cent were from other parts of Asia, and 3 per cent were from other regions – figures similar to previous years.
South China Morning Post
04-04-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
61% of eligible DSE candidates get into Hong Kong public universities, down from 70%
The success rate of eligible candidates who sat for the exam to be admitted into Hong Kong's publicly funded universities has fallen from 70 per cent in 2023 to 61 per cent, government statistics show, even as the scrapping of the liberal studies core subject allowed more students to meet minimum entrance requirements. Advertisement According to figures recently submitted by the Education Bureau to the Legislative Council, 19,262 candidates who took the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) last year met the minimum requirement to get into the eight local universities. But only 61 per cent, or 11,837, received offers from varsities via the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (Jupas), a centralised system for those hoping to pursue full-time undergraduate programmes. The success rate for those eligible students dropped by 9 percentage points compared with 2023, when 70 per cent of DSE candidates were offered places in the city's government-funded universities. About 50,000 candidates sat the DSE in both 2023 and 2024. Advertisement Last year, 1,356 more students met the minimum entrance requirement than during the previous year. There was a drop in the number of places available at the eight universities through Jupas, from 12,592 in 2023 to 11,837 last year.
South China Morning Post
19-03-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong education authorities searching for non-local university enrolment solution
The number of children of non-local professionals enrolled into public universities almost trebled over the last two years, prompting the education authorities to consider finding extra undergraduate places for them to avoid competition with Hong Kong students. Advertisement Secretary for Education, Christine Choi Yuk-lin, on Wednesday said that the result of a review into the definition of local students – prompted by complaints of local parents regarding the influx of dependents under the city's talent scheme – would be announced before the next round of applications for publicly funded undergraduate programmes. 'The other thing is to find some places so that it does not affect the 15,000 opportunities of our local students. This is one of the plans we are studying,' she said, on the number of first-year-first degree places for local students every year. Choi said in a Legislative Council meeting that there were around 132,000 children aged under 18 permitted to come to Hong Kong as dependents under the various talent admission schemes during the period from 2022 to 2025. While the immigration authorities did not provide a breakdown of ages, Choi revealed a significant increase in the number of dependents admitted to public universities through the central allocation programme, Joint University Programmes Admissions System (Jupas). Advertisement 'According to the JUPAS Office, the number of dependents admitted to University Grants Committee-funded first-year-first degree programmes through the JUPAS route in the three years from the 2022-23 to 2024-25 academic years were 62, 68 and 185 respectively,' Choi said.
