Parents call for review of coveted ‘local’ student status

Local student status, which eases university applications and scholarships, and bypasses limits on non-local students, has become coveted in Hong Kong as the city tries to attract more overseas talent to make up for a declining population and professional skills shortages.

But Hong Kong parents have become concerned that students from mainland China, who they see as direct competition for Hong Kong-born students, are finding ways to bypass the current cap on non-local students by applying as locals.

They want the Hong Kong government to limit the definition of local students to those who have been resident in the city for at least three years, and to close a loophole which ties possession of a dependant visa (granted to a child under the age of 18) to local status, as well as other conditions.

A recent petition to Hong Kong’s Legislative Council said the definition of local students was under “risk of serious abuse”, urging the government to conduct a review.

Loopholes allowing students from mainland China to qualify as ‘local’ in Hong Kong will have “a serious impact on the education opportunities of students from local families and lead to the abuse of the government’s public funds”, said a petition to Hong Kong’s legislature from a group of concerned parents.

It referred to Hong Kong’s eight publicly funded universities which are also the most popular among mainland students. Six of them place highly in international rankings, with the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) among the top 10 in Asia.

Hong Kong’s Under Secretary for Education Jeff Sze Chun-fai told the city’s Legislative Council this week the city administration would consider re-examining the definition of ‘local’ students used by institutions when admitting students, without specifying a timetable.

Schools and universities a draw for ‘top talent’

Loopholes have emerged since the Hong Kong government launched the city’s Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS) in December 2022 which targets graduates from the world’s top 100 universities in international rankings and encourages them to apply for a two-year visa to seek jobs in the city.

The aim was to plug a shortage of skilled professionals due to an exodus of Hong Kong and expatriate professionals after Beijing imposed the National Security Law on the city in 2020, as well as an economic downturn in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Around 160,000 such talents have arrived in Hong Kong with their families since the inception of the scheme, according to official figures released by Hong Kong chief executive John Lee during a policy address on 16 October.

Of the Top Talent passes issued so far, 95% have been from mainland China. Concerns are rising in Hong Kong that some may be using the scheme to fast-track their children to the city’s highly ranked universities as ‘local’ students.

According to vibrant social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu, word has spread that a large number of TTPS applicants say getting their children into the city’s schools is the main draw of the scheme, with the schools being of high standard.

Hong Kong schools, which have also seen empty school places due to the post-2020 exodus and a low birth rate, are considered easier to gain admission into than top schools in China and serve as a feeder into Hong Kong’s highly-ranked universities.

Changing the definition of local

The group of Hong Kong parents calling themselves the “Local Students University Places Concern Group” said they wanted “to protect the educational rights of Hong Kong students and the fairness of public funding”.

Their online petition also pointed to schemes run by “intermediaries” in mainland China for parents who apply for the Top Talent pass but have no intention of settling in Hong Kong.

They pointed to the so-called ‘Examination Immigration’ route, which sees parents applying for the top talent scheme to obtain a dependant visa for their child a year before the child is due to take Hong Kong’s Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (DSE). The students prepare for the DSE through overseas tutoring institutions, and then apply to sit the exam as ‘self-study’ students.

They can then apply to Hong Kong’s public universities as ‘local students’ with their tuition fees subsidised by public funds.

The concern group has urged the city’s government to review the definition of local students to require that qualifying students have studied in Hong Kong secondary schools for at least three years when applying to universities. Alternatively, one of the applicant’s parents should be a Hong Kong permanent resident.

Legislative Council member Gary Zhang Xinyu, who has looked into the issue, said the concerned parents include Hong Kong parents and parents of new immigrants from the mainland who settled in Hong Kong some years ago.

He noted reports of agencies advertising “Immigration by Examination” in recent months, targeting mainland parents and claiming using this route through the Top Talent programme was a much faster way for their children to obtain visas to Hong Kong.

Zhang agreed there was a need to show residence in Hong Kong for a certain period of time to prevent the growth in such cases from impacting on universities.

Gerard Postiglione, emeritus professor of education at HKU, told University World News it was “common worldwide that affordability is prioritised for prospective students from within the jurisdiction to which the university belongs rather than those out-of-region, or out-of-state, or out-of-country students”.

More non-local students

But the Hong Kong government is also keen to promote the city as an education hub and bring in more overseas students.

This September the cap on non-local students at publicly funded institutions at undergraduate level was raised from 20% to 40%, but non-local students, which include those from the mainland, must pay higher tuition fees.

The lifting of the cap for public universities “already represents a substantial increase of opportunity for non-local students”, a CUHK academic told University World News on condition of anonymity.

“This already caused some concern among Hong Kong people who fear that they will face more competition for places. But it seems right for students to be resident in Hong Kong for a certain period before they can be considered local for fees,” the academic noted.

However, he added that mainland students needed to be better integrated into Hong Kong’s “education culture”.

“In particular, many [mainland students] face problems with the standard of English language,” he said, noting that the city’s universities teach in English.

“Integration is best done by requiring residence, including time spent in school in Hong Kong to get them to the same level as other Hong Kong pupils,” he added.

Expansion of lists

But there are other ways of allowing in more mainland students.

Currently, the raising of the cap on non-locals does not apply to private institutions in the city. The education bureau said in a paper presented to the legislature on 23 October that private higher education institutions, many of them providing vocational pathways, could absorb more non-local students.

The Top Talent Scheme has twice extended the number of universities that qualify. This month it added 13 Chinese and overseas universities to the list, chief executive Lee announced in his address on 16 October, bringing the total to around 198 institutions. Multiple doctoral or masters degrees will not improve an applicant's chances, the city’s authorities clarified.

The additions include hospitality and hotel management schools in Europe, and four British and US universities specialising in art and design — Royal College of Art; University of the Arts London; Parsons School of Design, The New School; and Rhode Island School of Design.

In addition, Lee announced that a pilot arrangement for non-Hong Kong graduates from the branch campuses of Hong Kong universities in neighbouring Guangdong province had been extended for another two years.

These include the Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College in Zhuhai, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Guangzhou.