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.

According to the bureau's figures released on Nov 13, 2024, 4,562 students applied for admission through the scheme in the 2024/25 academic year, with 2,340 of them enroling at mainland universities.

In the 2023/24 academic year, a total of 23,317 Hong Kong students studied at higher education institutions on the mainland, the figures showed.

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.

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Liu Ning-rong, professor in globalization and business at the City University of Hong Kong, hailed the expansion of the admission scheme as "excellent news", as there has been a growing number of Hong Kong students pursuing higher education on the mainland in recent years, a trend that provides them with access to a wider range of institutions. 

"In particular, those top tier universities on the mainland offer high-quality education, in strong fields like STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), at a relatively low cost," Liu told China Daily.

In this era of a more integrated Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the qualifications earned and the professional networks built during their studies on the mainland will undoubtedly provide significant long-term benefits to Hong Kong students, Liu pointed out.

Jessica Chen contributed to this story.