Pedestrians use a crossing in Central, Hong Kong, on Feb 28. (ANDY CHONG / CHINA DAILY)

HONG KONG – Eight top institutions from the Chinese mainland and overseas will be added to the list of eligible universities under the Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS) starting Nov 1, taking the total number to 184, the Hong Kong government announced on Thursday.

The move is aimed at attracting more talent to Hong Kong for development, the special administrative region government said in a statement.

The list of eligible universities under the scheme covers the top 100 universities under the four designated world university rankings in the past five years.

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Such ranking systems include the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings, the U.S. News & World Report's Best Global Universities Rankings, and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Academic Ranking of World Universities.

The SAR govt emphasized the need to recruit talent proactively to relieve the tight situation of the labor market and supplement the talent pool locally

Of the eight newly-added institutions, five are on the QS World University Rankings in the discipline of "hospitality and leisure management”. 

The institutions are EHL Hospitality Business School, Swiss Hotel Management School, Les Roches Global Hospitality Management Education, Glion Institute of Higher Education, and Hotelschool The Hague.

The remaining three institutions are Wuhan University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, and Harbin Institute of Technology. 

They are among the top 10 mainland universities under the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Best Chinese Universities Ranking yet to be included in the current list of eligible universities.

Global competition for talent remains fierce, the special administrative region government said, emphasizing the need to recruit talent proactively to relieve the tight situation of the labor market and supplement the talent pool locally.

The Policy Address therefore sets out to expand the list of eligible universities of the TTPS to boost the efforts to compete for talent, it added.

Announcing the expansion of the list of universities under the talent pass scheme while delivering his second Policy Address on Wednesday, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said a "Talent Service Office" will also be set up by October-end.

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Besides, HK$1 billion will be injected into the "Government Scholarship Fund" to increase the number of places for the "Belt and Road Scholarship" by 50 percent from 2024/25, the CE said, adding that hostel places at University Grants Committee-funded varsities will be expanded to 13,500 by 2027. 

With the aim to develop it into an international post-secondary education hub, the quota of non-local students in government-funded tertiary institutions will be doubled to 40 percent from the 2024/25 academic year, he also announced.