There is room to do more. There were 17,161 non-local students at public universities in 2024-25. This accounts for about 23 per cent of local student places, still short of the 40 per cent allowed.
Noting that the quota is still not fully utilised and that some institutions are not yet ready for increasing their intake in terms of staffing and facilities, Choi said she believed that public universities could enrol more quality overseas students to ensure greater diversity on campuses in future.
She said the universities had become more mindful of the number of overseas students compared with those from the mainland, Taiwan and Macau, in response to concerns that mainlanders accounted for more than 70 per cent of the non-local intake. But she stressed that picking the best was still the priority and that this would not be sacrificed to ensure greater diversity.
Being an international education hub means the city should aim to attract the top students from different countries. Local universities should come up with more quality and up-to-date programmes, such as tech-related majors, to attract talent from around the world.
