The Education Bureau (EDB) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has requested the city’s universities to reach out to top talent following the ban on Harvard University’s enrolling foreign students by US President Donald Trump’s administration; this has since been contested, earning the university a temporary reprieve.

But if the American university’s 6,800 international students eventually lose their visa status, Hong Kong would certainly be an attractive option, for two main reasons: First, Hong Kong has five institutions in the top 100 of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings; second, Chinese nationals reportedly made up about a fifth of Harvard’s foreign student intake in 2024.

On Friday, as was widely reported, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology said it would make unconditional offers to international undergraduate and postgraduate students at Harvard, as well as those holding confirmed offers, to continue their studies at HKUST.

Other Hong Kong universities also made the right noises, especially after Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin called on local institutions to do more to build the city’s “Study in Hong Kong” brand.

The EDB said it would consider appropriate support measures as part of the city’s role as an international education hub. It has contacted the Harvard Club of Hong Kong to reach out to students who have been admitted to Harvard.

It is admirable that the Harvard impasse is generating the right responses from the authorities and their keenness to build on Hong Kong’s educational excellence to expand its global reputation as a tertiary education hub is evident.

But it could also get a little confusing considering that in his February budget speech, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po proposed a 2 percent cut in university grants annually over the next three years to reduce Hong Kong’s HK$87.2 billion ($11.2 billion) deficit. He also indicated he would like public universities to return HK$4 billion to the government on a one-off basis in the 2025-26 financial year.

It is equally distressing that all this enthusiasm to build a “Study in Hong Kong” brand, despite all that belt-tightening, is perhaps bypassing a younger and more vulnerable cohort that is already studying in the public schools of Hong Kong, and which learned just last week that they would have to make do with at least 10 percent less government funding for the upcoming academic year. Schools under the direct subsidy program could face a 2 percent cut in funds.

Not only that, in a curious move that might make it much harder for non-Chinese children with special needs to access education in a supportive ecosystem, the threshold for the grant earmarked for this particular segment has been raised. From the coming year, schools will need to admit at least six such students — up from just one — to obtain the basic grant of around HK$106,000.

The apparent reason for all this? Fiscal consolidation, in the face of a staggering budget deficit.

Curiously, also last week, these children learned from a government spokesman that the “fiscal situation of the HKSAR government has remained robust”. In response to a Fitch report on maintaining Hong Kong’s AA- credit rating and stable outlook, the spokesman also said, “According to the government’s medium-range forecast, the Operating Account (that is, the government’s daily income and expenses) is expected to be largely balanced in this financial year, and will return to surplus in the next financial year (2026-27) … the level of deficit in the Capital Account will gradually decrease starting from the 2026-27 financial year. Overall, after counting the proceeds from bond issuance, the Consolidated Accounts will return to surplus in the 2028-29 financial year.”

How does one explain the dichotomy to young children — many of them vulnerable and disadvantaged? How does one tell our children living in one of the world’s wealthiest cities that the social costs of a single generation hobbled for lack of educational opportunities can percolate down to future generations? That the loss of upward mobility, perpetuation of the circle of poverty and intrinsic limiting of opportunities can be irreversible? That it is okay to consider building facilities to berth superyachts or increase election-related spending by 52 percent while taking the axe to education outlay?

Enthusiasm for tertiary and school education does not have to be mutually exclusive or subject to optics. Eagerness to build a brand must not reduce to faceless statistics the intended beneficiaries — our children. They are not faceless and nameless — they are the young shoots of a community and are getting ready to tell their own stories to the world. They are our future.

Let us not abdicate our responsibility to help them get ready for the future they are owed.

The author, who was born in Kolkata, India, is an award-winning Hong Kong-based journalist, current affairs commentator and English-fiction writer.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.