An education exhibition scheduled for this weekend will encourage Hong Kong students to study in the Chinese mainland, as applications will open on Sunday.

This year, 145 mainland universities and colleges, seven more than in 2023, will enrol Hong Kong students who have obtained satisfactory results in their Diploma of Secondary Education Examination.

The newly added institutions are Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, China Academy of Art, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, as well as three located in Guangdong province – Foshan University, Guangdong Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.

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Most of the 145 institutions will participate in the Mainland Higher Education Expo 2025/26 jointly organized by the Ministry of Education and Hong Kong’s Education Bureau, providing information such as faculties and subjects, admission criteria and the number of available places to students who are interested in pursuing their studies in the mainland.

Officials from the Ministry of Education will explain application procedures and admission arrangements on-site, and a handbook introducing related information will be distributed free of charge at the exhibition venue and online for visitors’ further reference.

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An array of sharing sessions focusing on subjects provided by mainland higher education institutions, such as engineering, Chinese medicine and finance, and on living and studying information on the mainland, will be hosted on the sidelines of the expo to give visitors in-depth understanding. Guest speakers will discuss on career prospects during the two-day event.

The expo will also be held online with mainland higher education institutions setting up virtual booths to distribution information.

The Scheme for Admission of Hong Kong Students to Mainland Higher Education Institutions was launched in the 2012/13 academic year, to provide Hong Kong students an additional study path after completing their secondary education. Over the past three years, the scheme helped an average of over 2,000 local students per year gain admission to mainland institutions.

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Over 23,000 Hong Kong students were studying in the mainland during the 2023-24 academic year.

The city also funds Hong Kong students pursuing undergraduate education in the mainland through a subsidy program. The program disbursed HK$63 million ($8.1 million) to 4,601 students in 2023-24 academic year.

Contact the writer at atlasshao@chinadailyhk.com