Hong Kong universities enjoy ‘growing appeal with belt and road, Asean students’

Hong Kong’s universities have proved highly popular among mainland Chinese students, while interest is growing among those from Southeast Asia and countries taking part in the Belt and Road Initiative, the education minister has said.Speaking at the reception for the “Study in Hong Kong Week” on Monday, Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin said the city was now attracting more students from outside of China. The wider event will run until Sunday.“While Hong Kong is highly popular among students from the Chinese mainland, the number from other parts of the world, especially in [the Asean bloc] and belt and road countries and regions, has increased significantly in recent years,” she said.The minister said that about one in every four university students came from outside Hong Kong, while about 70 per cent of academic staff were from outside the city.According to official figures, the proportion of non-local students reached 27.1 per cent of the number of local students in the 2025-26 academic year, compared with 23.2 per cent in the previous school year.Starting in 2024-25, the government doubled non-local student admission quotas at public universities to the equivalent of 40 per cent of the number of local students. Authorities plan to raise the threshold to 50 per cent in 2026-27.The latest data from the University Grants Committee showed the proportion of non-local undergraduates at the city’s public universities from the mainland stood at about 72 per cent in 2025-26.