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Mainland students turn to Hong Kong universities amid gaokao, US visa worries

Hong Kong universities are increasingly attracting mainland Chinese students, driven by intense gaokao competition and Sino-US tensions. New data shows a 207% surge in non-local postgraduate enrollments, while Hong Kong students studying abroad hit a 14-year low.

By Tertius News AI Desk 1 outlet · 2 articles Version 1 Coverage Apr 21 – May 4, 2026 Published Aug 13

Lead

Hong Kong's universities are becoming an increasingly popular destination for mainland Chinese students, who are drawn by the city's proximity, cultural familiarity, and more generous admission policies, even as they face intense competition at home and uncertainties in Sino-US relations. This shift is reshaping the educational landscape in Hong Kong, with new data showing a significant rise in mainland enrollments while the number of local students heading abroad has fallen to a 14-year low.

Coverage Comparison

Two reports from the South China Morning Post highlight this trend from different angles. One focuses on the surge in mainland students coming to Hong Kong, citing a report by Peking University's Sustainability Research Institute and two education companies. The other examines the decline in Hong Kong students leaving the city, attributing it to the influx of mainlanders into local schools.

Key Claims

According to the South China Morning Post, the number of non-local students in Hong Kong's taught postgraduate programmes increased by 207% from the 2020-21 academic year to 2023-24, reaching 38,100 students. At the University of Hong Kong, mainland students made up 63.4% of non-local undergraduates and 92.4% of taught postgraduates, as reported by the newspaper.

The report also notes that policies have doubled non-local student quotas to 40% of local places starting from the 2024-25 academic year, a move that is expected to further boost mainland enrollments.

On the other side, the Education Bureau's 2025 Secondary 6 Students' Pathway Survey, as reported by the South China Morning Post, found that only 2,671 students, or 6.5% of 40,948 Form Six graduates, chose to study outside Hong Kong last year. This represents a 13% drop from 2024 and the lowest number since 2012. Compared to the peak in 2020, the number of students leaving the city has plunged by 56% in six years.

Perspectives

Ng Po-shing, a student guidance consultant at Hok Yau Club and a vice-principal of a secondary school, told the South China Morning Post that the decline in Hong Kong students studying abroad reflects a "structural change" in the student composition of local schools. He estimated that more than 10% of secondary school students are now from the mainland, and most of them did not attend primary schools in Hong Kong. "These mainland students mostly aim at Hong Kong's universities rather than overseas institutions, and even plan to work here upon graduation, so the number going overseas to study continues to drop," he said.

The authors of the Blue Book on Mainland Students Studying in Hong Kong, from Peking University's Sustainability Research Institute and two education companies, described the trend as a "qualitative change" in the scale, structure, and underlying logic of mainland students pursuing education in Hong Kong. They wrote that what began as an elite pathway for a small number of top-performing students has evolved into a complex ecosystem spanning schooling, multiple undergraduate admission channels, and a large-scale influx into taught master's programmes, with ever-closer links between study, career planning, and long-term residency status.

The report predicts that Hong Kong will emerge as an "educational magnet" for mainland students, bolstered by the expanded quotas and the city's appeal as a gateway to international opportunities.

While the trend is clear, the long-term implications for Hong Kong's educational landscape and its students remain to be seen. The shift is likely to continue as long as the factors driving it—gaokao competition, US visa uncertainties, and Hong Kong's favorable policies—remain in place.

How this outlet told it

A framing line is our reading of that outlet's own text — an interpretation, not a quotation and not a fact we assert. Check it against what the outlet published.

South China Morning Post as of Apr 21, 2026, 2:31 PM UTC

Framing: Our reading Decline in Hong Kong students studying abroad — Informative

Facts Included:

2,671 students chose to study outside Hong Kong in 2025
6.5 per cent of 40,948 Form Six graduates pursued full-time courses outside Hong Kong
13 per cent drop in students studying outside Hong Kong from 2024 to 2025
56 per cent plunge in students leaving the city over six years
More than 10 per cent of secondary school students are from the mainland

Read the source article →

South China Morning Post as of May 4, 2026, 2:01 AM UTC

Framing: Our reading Hong Kong as an educational magnet for mainland students — Analytical

Facts Included:

Hong Kong universities gaining favour among mainland Chinese families
207 per cent increase in non-local students in taught postgraduate programmes from 2020-21 to 2023-24
Policies doubling non-local student quotas to 40 per cent of local places
63.4 per cent of non-local undergraduates at HKU are mainland students
92.4 per cent of taught postgraduates at HKU are mainland students

Read the source article →

What was claimed, and who backed it

AI-extracted; can misattribute a claim — see Methodology.

Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.

Claim	Confidence	Status
ClaimOnly 2,671 students, or 6.5 per cent of 40,948 Form Six graduates pursuing full-time courses, chose to study outside Hong Kong last year.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of Apr 21, 2026, 2:31 PM UTC
ClaimThe number of Hong Kong secondary school leavers pursuing higher studies outside the city fell to a 14-year low in 2025.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of Apr 21, 2026, 2:31 PM UTC
ClaimThe number of Form Six students leaving the city plunged by 56 per cent in six years.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of Apr 21, 2026, 2:31 PM UTC
ClaimMore than 10 per cent of secondary school students are from the mainland.	ConfidenceMedium	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of Apr 21, 2026, 2:31 PM UTC
ClaimHong Kong universities are rapidly gaining favour among mainland Chinese families.	ConfidenceMedium	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of May 4, 2026, 2:01 AM UTC
ClaimThere was a 207 per cent increase in non-local students in taught postgraduate programmes from 2020-21 to 2023-24.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of May 4, 2026, 2:01 AM UTC
ClaimPolicies have doubled non-local student quotas to 40 per cent of local places starting from the 2024-25 academic year.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of May 4, 2026, 2:01 AM UTC
ClaimMainland students accounted for 63.4 per cent of non-local undergraduates and 92.4 per cent of taught postgraduates at the University of Hong Kong.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of May 4, 2026, 2:01 AM UTC
ClaimThe number of students studying outside Hong Kong dropped by 13 per cent from 2024 to 2025.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of Apr 21, 2026, 2:31 PM UTC

Transparency & Audit Trail

1 outlet · 2 articles consulted: South China Morning Post 9 claims extracted Version 1 Written 2026-08-13