Geopolitical tensions between China and the US are driving more mainland Chinese students to apply to Hong Kong’s universities, according to the head of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU).
Jin-Guang Teng, president of the university, said the institution had seen an uplift in applications as a result of frostier relations between the two superpowers.
“In some sense, this is an opportunity for Hong Kong to develop…its brand of studying in Hong Kong, because the universities in Hong Kong are of very high quality, so the students think that they can get out as much as they can in a foreign country,” he said, predicting that this trend could continue for the next decade.
From 2024, the government permitted institutions to admit double the number of students from outside Hong Kong but there have been concerns that the majority of these continue to come from mainland China.
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Like most universities in Hong Kong, PolyU is keen to increase the number of students enrolling from the wider world.
As well as mainland Chinese students, Teng said the institution had also seen a “big jump” in the number of applications from outside China, with these students expected to make up more than 30 per cent of the university’s non-local cohort this year.
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Teng predicted that tuition fees for non-local students could continue to increase as demand grows and Hong Kong grapples with a fiscal deficit that has seen the island’s universities asked to return their reserves.
“The universities are currently also increasing tuition fees because the amount of money non-local students pay in tuition fees is not actually the full cost,” he said.
“It used to be calculated based on marginal cost, which means you don’t calculate things like how much you spend on library costs. So I think as time goes on, the universities will charge a little more money…for the full cost recovery.”
While geopolitical tensions might be “positive” for bringing students to Hong Kong, the Chinese engineer also warned that there has also been a “negative” impact on international partnerships.
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“Particularly if you want to collaborate, for example, with universities in the US in areas like AI, I think they are becoming very sensitive,” he said.
Like other higher education leaders around the world, AI is a key focus area for Teng.
“We were probably the first university in the world to implement compulsory education for every undergraduate student in AI in September 2022,” he told Times Higher Education.
And PolyU does appear to have been ahead of the curve in the region. In March 2024, Nanjing University in mainland China made artificial intelligence a compulsory module for students in all departments while, more recently, the Chinese government has mandated compulsory AI education from primary school age.
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“We are very strongly committed to producing both talents and the technology for the industry and community, not only in Hong Kong but also in the Greater Bay Area,” Teng continued.
The university is one of three that has put in a bid for launching Hong Kong’s next medical school. If successful, Teng said, AI will be crucial to how students at the new institution will be taught and what they learn.
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“In the future, medical documentation will be done by AI, diagnosis will be supported by AI systems and we want to nurture graduates for this new era,” he said.
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