Hong Kong Universities Increase Tuition Fees by 5.3% to 6.10%

Chinanews.com, January 1 According to Hong Kong's "Wen Wei Po", the chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region proposed in the latest policy address to develop Hong Kong into an international post-secondary education hub, including doubling the upper limit of non-local undergraduate students in the eight aided universities (the eight universities) to 16% of the total number of places from the 2024/25 academic year. In addition, according to the latest information, a total of five universities will increase the tuition fees of non-local undergraduate students by 40.2024% to 25.5% in the 3/6 academic year.

Data map: The University of Hong Kong. Image source: Hong Kong Wen Wei Po

A number of universities have indicated that they will not "exhaust" the maximum number of places in the new academic year, but will gradually increase the number of non-local students according to the actual situation, and set up a number of different scholarships, exchanges, internships and research schemes to enrich the educational content, so as to attract and support outstanding talents from all over the world to pursue their studies in Hong Kong.

In view of the goal of becoming an international post-secondary education hub, the HKSAR Government has also proposed to increase the scholarship scheme and continue to implement a number of hostel projects in various universities. As the increase in revenue for non-local students is almost non-public-funded, the related tuition fees and resources are one of the major concerns.

According to the responses and admission webpages of the eight universities, five universities will increase tuition fees for non-local students in the new academic year, with PolyU, CityU and HKBU each increasing by 5.14% from HK$5,16 to HK$10,3, HKUST increasing by 9.7% to HK$17,14 and EdUHK increasing by 3.6% from HK$14,5 to HK$<>,<>.

In addition, the University of Hong Kong, the University of Hong Kong Chinese and Lingnan University kept the tuition fees for non-local students unchanged, but HKU still topped the top eight universities with $18,2.

Data map: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Image source: Hong Kong Wen Wei Po

Regarding the fee increase for non-local students, EdUHK pointed out that in response to the epidemic, the university has not changed its tuition fees for five consecutive years and made a decision to increase the fees after referring to the tuition fees of other local universities, while PolyU said that it will review the tuition fees of various programmes from time to time, taking into account factors such as programme costs.

CUHK, PolyU, CityU and EdUHK have all pointed out that in response to the HKSAR Government's efforts to develop Hong Kong into an international post-secondary education hub, they will gradually increase the number of undergraduate places for non-local students starting from the new academic year.

In particular, CUHK plans to increase the number of Mainland college entrance examination candidates from 2024 to 25 in the 100/400 academic year, while PolyU is committed to promoting an international learning environment, continuously innovating its curriculum, attracting students from all over the world to pursue further studies and development in Hong Kong, and continuing to implement the Undergraduate Research Scheme CityU will further increase and expand its channels of publicity to outstanding students, and will actively enhance its allocation through online and offline promotion and organising a number of briefing sessions.

For example, Lingnan University offers more than 900 scholarships and awards totalling over $2300 million, and PolyU also offers the Moral Arts Scholarship to recognise outstanding students in sports, arts, leadership and community service, as well as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

In addition, Lingnan University pointed out that in addition to providing internships, service-learning and exchange programmes, it also provides on-campus accommodation for non-local students, including the Registry and the Office of Student Affairs, which will provide personalised support for non-local students.