The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has opened
its door wider to mainland students, pledging to enroll
more of them in the coming academic year.
A total of 250 seats will be offered to students from
across the border, about 20 more than the present arrangement.
The initiative is aimed at attracting more talented
mainland students and help boost CUHK's international
image, the university said.
Under the plan, more than 4 million students from 13
provinces and four cities will be eligible to apply
for degree courses at CUHK, now included in the country's
national universities and colleges enrollment scheme.
Earlier, only 2 million students from 10 provinces and
cities were eligible to apply.
The students will be able to seek admission to CUHK
in very much the same way they do in the mainland universities.
The new initiative will cover seven more provinces
and cities, including Liaoning, Hunan, Shanxi, Hainan
and Henan provinces, Tianjin municipality and the Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The university's pro-vice-chancellor, Jack Cheng, said
yesterday the initiative will further "broaden
the mix of students on the campus and boost our university's
global standing".
"We believe that we can attract the top mainland
students to study in CUHK with our English-rich environment
and well-established international education model,"
he said.
Cheng said the admission criteria will be much higher
than those of key mainland universities because of limited
seats in CUHK.
At present, 20 per cent of the university's students
come from the Chinese mainland or other countries and
regions outside Hong Kong. CUHK has targeted to raise
the proportion to 25 per cent in the coming years.
Cheng said mainland students would make up a substantial
portion of non-local students of CUHK. But he pledged
that local students would not be denied seats.
The university is now renovating its hostels to provide
more accommodation to non-locals. It has sought more
private fundings, too, to provide them scholarships.
But the university will charge non-locals a higher
school fees this year. They will pay an annual tuition
fee of HK$80,000, compared with HK$60,000 last year.
In comparison, local students only pay HK$42,000 each
year.
To broaden students' international perspectives, CUHK
will increase student exchange programmes with 180 partner
universities in 23 countries.
Starting from 2005-06, CUHK's outgoing students in
short-term and full-year exchanges will reach up to
55 per cent of its annual intake.
CUHK has close links with renowned foreign universities,
including Harvard, Yale and Princeton.
|