Children of non-local talent will be required to reside in Hong Kong for at least two years to become eligible for local students’ benefits at publicly funded tertiary education institutions starting in the 2027-28 academic year, as part of the government’s efforts to prevent abuse.
The government announced on Thursday the key change requiring holders of dependent visas or entry permits under the age of 18 to have lived in the city for two years before applying for subsidised sub-degree, undergraduate and post-graduate programmes as local students.
“To clarify the eligibility criteria for government-subsidised post-secondary student institutions and subsidies and to ensure the proper use of public funds, the Education Bureau ... considers it necessary for dependent children to reside in Hong Kong for two years before becoming eligible,” the bureau said.
“Holders of a full-time employment visa/work permit or a visa/entry permit for various admission schemes will no longer be eligible for government-subsidised post-secondary student places.”
The bureau said the revision would take effect from the 2027-28 academic year, with the application cycle starting in October 2026.
It added that the time frame would ensure reasonable time for applicants to make their own plans.
In October 2024, a group of parents claimed that some individuals and intermediaries arranged for non-local talent who had no intention of settling in Hong Kong to apply for various admission schemes to obtain dependent visas for their children’s tertiary education in the city.
This is due to non-local students paying tuition fees that are three times higher than those of local students.
Students who first received dependent visas or entry permits when they were under 18 years old are considered local under the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (Jupas), a centralised application system for full-time undergraduate courses.
The parents said that non-local families arranged for children to attend tutorial classes in mainland China to prepare for the city’s university entrance exams as private candidates, thereby labelling them as “examination immigrants”.
Once admitted, these children would only need to pay the local tuition fee of HK$44,500 (US$5,668), whereas non-local students are required to pay three times that amount.
About 142,000 children under the age of 18 were approved for entry as dependants under various talent admission schemes up to May this year, according to official data.
While immigration authorities did not provide an age breakdown, they earlier reported a significant increase in the number of dependants admitted to public universities through Jupas.
According to the Jupas Office, the number of dependants admitted to University Grants Committee-funded first-year first-degree programmes in the three academic years from 2022-23 to 2024-25 was 62, 68 and 185, respectively.
The 172 per cent surge over the past two years coincided with the launch of the Top Talent Pass Scheme in late December 2022.
The Top Talent Pass Scheme, which is popular among mainlanders, is open to candidates who earned more than HK$2.5 million over the past 12 months or graduates of the world’s top 100 universities.
Lawmaker Gary Zhang Xinyu said that tightening the requirements was a responsible decision for local students and the future education system, noting that 2,500 non-locals, mostly from the mainland, took the university entrance exam this year, 13 times more than the number recorded in 2021 and the highest since 2012.
