Twenty more universities on the Chinese mainland will accept students from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region based on the results of their Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education exams starting from the 2026/27 academic year, taking the total number of such tertiary education institutions to 165.
The Ministry of Education announced earlier that the number of mainland universities participating in the Scheme for Admission of Hong Kong Students to Mainland Higher Education Institutions will increase from 145 to 165 in 21 provinces/municipalities and two autonomous regions.
Welcoming the ministry’s announcement, a spokesperson for the Education Bureau said in a statement on Monday that mainland universities participating in the program exempt students from the HKSAR from taking the Joint Entrance Examination for Mainland Institutions.
The bureau said institutions from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region joined the scheme for the first time, namely the Inner Mongolia Normal University and the Inner Mongolia Arts University.
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The Beijing Normal – Hong Kong Baptist University, City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan), Zhejiang University of Science and Technology and Chengdu University of Technology are also among the new participating universities.
The spokesperson said the bureau will continue discussions with mainland authorities so that more institutions will join the program and provide students with multiple pathways for their education and to connect with the country's development.
Students interested in the program can go to the designated website to apply from Dec 1-31, and later review and confirm application results before Jan 10, 2026.
Under the program, applicants should at least have a grade of “Attained” in the Citizenship and Social Development subject and obtain a total score of 8 or above in the three core subjects (Chinese Language, English Language and Mathematics) in the HKDSE exams, without getting a score of below 2 in any of them, according to the spokesperson.
