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.