HONG KONG – The Education Bureau has received the Ministry of Education's agreement to progressively relax the quota for admission of mainland students by six self-financing institutions in Hong Kong to join their degree programs.

The institutions will also be able to admit students from all provinces of the country, with a view to supporting the development of the self-financing post-secondary education sector, making contributions to Hong Kong's development into an international education hub, the bureau announced on Wednesday.

The six institutions are Metropolitan University, Hong Kong Shue Yan University, the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Chu Hai College, Tung Wah College, and the Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong under the Vocational Training Council.

Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin said she is grateful for the support of the MoE towards the capacity expansion and quality enhancement of self-financing post-secondary institutions.

“Following the doubling of the enrolment ceilings for non-local students of government-funded post-secondary institutions to 40 percent from the 2024/25 academic year, this relaxation arrangement can help harness the advantages of Hong Kong's self-financing sector in terms of its flexibility and diversity to nurture talent for the country and Hong Kong, supporting the high-quality development of the country, while adding impetus to Hong Kong.”

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The EDB has been providing targeted support and strengthening regulation to support the continuous quality enhancement of the self-financing sector, she said.

“The bureau will keep in view institutions' track record of operating self-financing programs, performance in student admissions and utilization of the prevailing quota, and liaise with the MoE to explore feasible further enhancements as and when appropriate,” Choi added.

From the 2025-26 academic year, the quota for the Chinese mainland, Macao, and Taiwan (MMT) students of full-time locally-accredited self-financing local sub-degree and undergraduate programs of these institutions will be increased in phases to 40 percent, in an orderly and progressive manner with regard to their utilization of the prevailing quota, according to the government.

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The EDB will rationalize the calculation methodology of the relevant quota concurrently to provide self-financing institutions with greater certainty in admission planning and more effectively utilizing the educational resources of institutions, it added.

Under the prevailing policy, except for MMT students, there is no quota restriction on the admission of non-local students to full-time locally-accredited self-financing local sub-degree, undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

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The quota for MMT students enrolling in full-time locally-accredited self-financing local sub-degree and undergraduate programs is 10 percent to 20 percent at the present, while there is no quota restriction for postgraduate programs.